


Debt

by DenseHumboldt



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Historical, Alternate Universe - Victorian, Author Is Sleep Deprived, Darcy is Sigyn, F/M, Fluff, Post-Avengers (2012), Post-Thor (2011), Pre-Thor: The Dark World, Reincarnation, Sigyn!Darcy, The Author Regrets Everything, tasertricks - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-27
Updated: 2020-07-14
Packaged: 2020-07-21 06:47:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 28,498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19997617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DenseHumboldt/pseuds/DenseHumboldt
Summary: Darcy Lewis is just trying to get an education. Loki wants to figure out what makes her different from the others and if he can exploit her for his own gain.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AnonymousMink](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AnonymousMink/gifts).



> I wrote this as a surprise for a friend. It's set vaguely post Avengers. I am terrible at timelines and keeping things straight in the MCU so let's just roll with it.
> 
> I love this ship but I have never written for it before so please forgive my gross inadequacies. 💜💙💚❤ DH
> 
> Also I post from my phone where spell check is heavily fooled by my own repeated errors and grammar is reliant entirely on my shoddy education.

Darcy Lewis was convinced student loans were the devil's handiwork. And like any path to hell they required proof of your misfortunes and misdeeds. In the case of Darcy Lewis they wanted proof that she was doing more with her education than driving around madly with Jane chasing her hunk of electrified man candy. The longest six college credits of her life. This was proof she couldn't provide, especially as Jane's standing with the College was deteriorating with each increasingly insane progress report they submitted.

Darcy knew Jane was right but how did you prove that to the dean of the physics department? And how did she justify to the chair of political sciences she should be allowed to remain in her faculty? So, the Government aid she received was being officially and rudely revoked. The only thing Darcy could do was put on her Sunday best and go beg at a real bank. One run by regular old white collar criminals. Unlike the Government which seemed to be overrun by big bad scary criminals. Although she suspected not many of them were in the Department of Education.

The elevator was terrifyingly rickety. The interior was all warm brown marble, like the surface of some molten hot baked goods, and gold coloured metal. She managed to squeeze herself in first so she could hit the button for the thirty-fourth floor then crouch in a corner as a sea of people flooded in after her. She looked up to see the doors close around the suffocating herd of them and her heart dropped out her butt when she saw the face reflected back at her in the copper.

Loki.

She tried to tame the rising panic and hunker down low in the back corner so he could not see her. His eyes stayed dead ahead, unblinking and calm as if all his focus was turned inwards. Darcy attempted to hold the file folder with her meager documents in it nonchalantly in front of her face. As if that was something people did. The elevator lurched and groaned under her feet. Please let them make it to the top. Or, let Thor be the one to rescue her if they started plunging to their deaths.

"None of you need to remain passed the second floor. You are offending my senses." He murmured it low, almost a growl from deep in his chest. No one seemed to notice he spoke except they all stood straighter and the combined energy of their focus seemed fixated on the smooth coppered doors. Darcy slouched lower in her corner. What if the folder was like shielding her eyes from the light? No, she should be reading it splayed wide over her face like a cartoon newspaper. Seamless. Natural. S.H.I.E.L.D-worthy.

The elevator dinged and like a school of salmon everyone pooled out around Loki, flooding the Internal Audits department on the second floor.

Darcy peaked over her file to watch Loki's profile survey their quivering mass. She quickly ducked behind it again. Something in her was telling her to go too but Financial Aid was on the thirty-fourth floor and if she got out she would have to wait with confused gaggle of human fish outside the doors. It didn't seem better than taking the elevator with Loki.

The doors closed again and he could see her slouched in the corner, nose buried in a folder.

"You've missed your stop," he said weaving a tiny gold chain around her will so he could tug her out of the doors.

"Prez zhirty-four pour moi, merci" she wasn't sure why she had thought a bad french accent might fool him but she kept her face firmly buried in the folder. Not that he would necessarily recognize her. She didn't really bear remembering.

"You will get out here," he intoned again tugging at the little chain again. The wench slouched further into the corner.

"Non, non monsieur zhirty-four," she cursed herself. Why had she committed to a French accent?

"Show me your face," Loki commanded his eyes burning into her in the reflection of the mirror. She was wearing threadbare black tights, a pilled grey wool skirt, a blazer he knew wouldn't button around her generous curves and some sort of mangy scarf. She looked more like a peasant than a bank worker.

Even though the thought made her sick Darcy lowered the folder slowly. She closed it and tucked it under her arm. She coughed awkwardly and looked at her shoes.

Loki thought she looked wildly familiar if he could picture her in grainy footage.

"Dr. Foster's whelp."

"Hey, I have a name." Darcy protested although a whelp wasn't better than being an unpaid intern. They were probably about the same.

"And what is it?" Loki asked his eyes hot and his voice dark as if giving her name to him would be a very bad idea.

"Darcy Lewis," she answered straightening her shoulders.

"You are bold to resist me, Miss Lewis." His reflection smiled like a many toothed shark at her reflection. The elevator was still climbing steadily up through the floors. Slower than a snail backing up. Darcy was not going to spend twenty seven floors being spoken to like a flea.

"Isn't it a little bold to just walk around like you didn't terrorize the city, Loki?"

"I am disguised. I don't appear as myself," he flattened a hand over his pitch black suit and wool coat.

"Then how come I can see you?" She opened her eyes wide and bobbled her head in a mocking way.

"I don't know. Are you a witch?" He turned to face her then his gaze one thousand times more powerful when it wasn't being reflected in the hazy copper coloured doors. He looked her slowly up and down.

"If I was a witch I would have rode my broom up to the thirty-fourth floor instead of taking this slow moving death trap." She smiled so he could see her sharp little eye teeth. He smiled back. This mortal had claws.

"You don't spend time with many witches," he answered. He drifted closer to her to see if he could make the flutter in the ivory column of her neck beat just a little bit faster.

"You're my first," she scrunched her nose at him coquettishly.

"I am the God of Mischief, mortal," he warned her.

"So why are you here? Michief, savings and loan? This is a bank. What could you possibly get up to here?"

"It's none of your concern," he turned away from her and looked back to the front of the elevator. She should see him as a bent old man but he could tell the glamour was not working on her. How could she see through his spell?

The elevator rose slowly. He was going higher than her. It would be a long ride. His power had been limited since his last attempt to rule Earth. Hence, why he had come in person to deal with the Titan on the forty-seventh floor instead of merely making a duplicate appear. If he had known he would be trapped with a quick-tongued wench he would have reconsidered how to spend his energy.  
He coughed in the awkward silence

"Why are you here?" He asked at last. The tension so thick as she fiddled with her cuffs it was weighing on a god.

"I am going to perjure myself in front of Dolores, Goddess of Student Loans and hopefully escape before someone realizes I haven't attended a class since 2012" she stopped plucking at her sleeves or skirt long enough to answer him.

"Why wouldn't you go to class? I thought Midgardians valued formal education," he didn't know why he was asking but the question spilled from him before he could stop it. She invited investigation this Darcy Lewis.

"All seems sort of pointless after watching death rain from the sky."

She thought for a moment Loki looked regretful. Or something. It was too brief. Too fleeting. A tiny crease in his pale perfect forehead as he inclined his head. The rest of the ride was in silence so her head could spin wildly from the effect of being so close to him to wondering why a god needed to take the elevator in the first place.

Finally, they reached the thirty-fourth floor. She crossed her arms pressing the folder to her chest so she could creep by him. To her shock he reached out as she passed and tapped two fingers against the cardstock folder covering her chest. She felt it straight into her flesh. Like an arrow but instead of killing her she had the strange desire to get on her knees. She settled with giving him suitably crazy eyes and continuing to shuffle around and out the doors.

"Good luck, Darcy Lewis," he said just as the doors closed again.

She needed to pee. Or faint. Or both.

* * *

Dolores, Goddess of Student Loans was actually Sandra, Patron Saint of Precursory Credit Checks. Something that made Darcy's palms itch. It wasn't that she had bad credit per se. More like no credit. As a person Darcy had dealt in cash, fast talking and government aid. She had never even had a Macy's card.

It was shocking to her that Sandra had keyed in her name and the computer had beeped happily.

"Thank you for your patience, Miss Lewis. If you would like to have a seat your advisor will see you momentarily."

So, Darcy sat in the oatmeal sludge grey chairs in the office waiting room that had none of the grandeur of the lobby or elevators. Her heart rate was slowly returning to normal. There had to a be a mistake. Darcy Lewis the Non-entity had not passed a credit check without gross human error.

When she was called into the cubicle of her advisor she was confronted by a lurid kitten calendar reminding her the month was almost up and she would need rent soon. Rent in New York of all places. Curse her life and the city's significant astronomical anomalies.

She sat down nervously in front of her advisor who smiled tightly at her.

"Now, Miss Lewis if you would like to let me look at your records we can see what First National can do for you."

Darcy nodded and handed over the file that seemed to be getting heavier and more mangled the longer she carried it. Dolores opened it and made a small sound of surprise as papers seemed to burst out.

Darcy tried to look natural as academic references and transcripts she had never seen before seemed to slip slide themselves all over the desk.

"Very impressive, Miss Lewis." Dolores' smile was a tad more genuine. "I am sure there is something we can do for you."

* * *

She saw a familiar wool coat in the lobby and she dashed for it before she could think better of it.

"Thank you for the help. You didn't have to do that." She panted a little as sprinting on the terrazzo had seemed a wildly dangerous endeavor in her low heels. Cool moss coloured eyes looked her up and down.

"No I didn't but as it was my fire that rained down I suppose I should right the scales. Besides, you seem to be an adequate agent of Chaos, Miss Lewis. It would be a shame if you were to be reigned in by something as petty as the Board of Education."

There was an awkward tension between them as they hovered in the grey, steel, and sunlit lobby.

"So, I guess that means I don't have to sleep with you." She made to bat his arm with her hand. He stepped back, minor shock in his eyes.

"What? No, of course not." He straightened his tie beneath his waistcoat. "You are Midgardian. It would be like sleeping with an animal.

That stung Darcy was forced to admit. Although at the moment she did look like a fiscally-responsible, wool-wrapped potato. Less of a snack more of a 'dig her out of the earth and swear never to go hungry again' look. Still rude.

Darcy scoffed. "As if you have never done that?"

"What are talking about?" Loki turned slightly away from her, ready to end the interview with the guttersnipe.

"Really, Loki we all have needs," she threaded her fingers together like a many legged spider and chomped at him "- eight-legged needs. I have read all about you."

"No, thats not-" he sighed exasperated at the proto-human record keeping. "Besides that's not what that meant. It was a metaphor."

"Uh-uh," Darcy nodded placatingly. "Metaphor for what?"

"The destruction of the natural order," he answered waving a thin pale hand in an arc to indicate the world at large, the bigger picture. The mortal just bit her rosy lips and nodded more exaggeratedly. He thought for a moment it would be a beautiful relief to strangle her.

"Sure, freakazoid," she winked lasciviously at him. He thought how satisfying it would be to make her beg for something. Anything. Her life, even.

"Tell me where you read about me Miss Lewis," he crept lethally closer to her. His eyes looking at her with that same burning stare. Darcy was reminded of Greek myth when seeing a god in their true form would roast a mortal away to ash. Did his voice have to be so persuasively deep? Like a warm bath. "Were there other stories?"

She swallowed. Fear was good. Fear kept you alive but Darcy was done being scared of this maniac. He'd helped her. He had a soft squishy underbelly he didn't want anyone to know about. She remembered the book Erik had first brought them.

"In a children's book. You look just like your picture." She brought her two fingers around her ears and pointed them upright. A poor mockery of his helm.

Okay Darce, enough mocking a god. Even if she didn't believe he had helped her just because his fleet of alien death balloons had made it hard for her to focus on homework.

"You would not laugh so readily if you had seen me in glorious battle." He stepped even closer to her. Close enough to breath the words in her ear. As she shivered he caught sight of them in a honed slab of steel indicating the floors of the Bank. He was, to all other eyes, a gnarled old man too close to vivacious young woman. A truth more accurate than what Miss Darcy saw. She was barely a blip in his long long life. A gnat dead by mid morning to his endless march.

He had completed his business. He should leave her.

"I think I got close enough in New Mexico, dontcha think?" She answered in a soft voice. A sweet edge of fear in the memory.

"A pittance compared to my full powers," he answered her. Still too close, still wanting to see her human instincts shimmer through her. "I will leave you to your education, Miss Lewis. I hope you apply yourself thoroughly."

They parted but she turned back and called for him before he could fade away.

"I know that's not why you helped me. I don't think you have ever been sorry for anything."

"Why did I, then?" She could see the glint of his eye tooth when he smiled.

"Maybe because I tased Thor," she shrugged as people began to pass between the distance separating them.

"An excellent trick." He looked down at his shoes and chuckled at the memory. "I enjoyed it but not why I helped you."

Loki didn't even know. Only that he wanted to do something for her.

"I will figure out the reason you know."

"You think you can see through all my tricks, Darcy Lewis of Midgard?"

"All of them so far," she smiled at him triumphantly.

"Then, I welcome your scrutiny." He bowed to her and disappaited as a crowd of bodies moved between them.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Quiet

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Got bit by a plot bunny and now I have Tasertricks rabies.
> 
> Love you Mink this is your fault

"So this is a Midgardian Library," Loki moved through the shelves, appearing like smoke. Darcy jumped trying to control the urge to throw her book at him.

"Holy Crapcakes," she whispered clutching her sweater instead. "What are you doing here?"

"Why are you whispering?" Loki turned from the shelf where he was reading the book spines, his face decidedly unimpressed.

"This is a library," Darcy looked up at him from her own book, her face decidedly unimpressed.

"Do you think the books can hear you?" He leant in and whispered to her as if she was a child.

"We stay quiet so other people can work," Darcy rolled her eyes and returned to her book. Loki was silent for a moment, content to wander the small corner of the library she had tucked herself into.

"Does it help?" He whispered in her ear, suddenly at her shoulder. Darcy jumped.

"Does what help?"

"The quiet."

"Usually," she tried to loudly turn the page of her book a silent encouragement for him to either go or tell her what he wanted.

"Why are you studying? I thought the plan had been to galavant around with Dr. Foster incurring several lifetimes worth of debt."

"Jane is busy right now. Besides turns out they like to have continuing proof that I am being educated."

"What are they educating you on currently?" He came to lean on the table beside her, his slim hand lifting the cover so he could read the title as she blatantly tried to ignore him. "Greek Myth? I find it a little offensive this is how you choose to spend your time. If you wanted to study a god- "

"It's a class on Greek political systems." She took her book from him and tried to turn her body away from him. "My professor just thinks the myths make it more fun."

"-fun?"

"Yes."

"And is it? Are you amused?"

Darcy shrugged tucking her hands into the sleeves of her sweater.

"It's hard to read about mortals dating gods and how bad it goes when your best friend is dating a god." 

"And is it? going badly?" There was a wicked gleam in his eyes as he looked down at her. His face lit up with the thought of Thor's misery. Darcy tried to fix him with her best withering look.

"That's none of your beeswax." Loki sighed and stood up. He drifted behind her seemingly bored with her lack of gossip. She could feel the movement of him behind her. Like he was a flame, the heat traveling across her skin. Intense awareness as if he wanted her to follow him.

"Which story do they have you reading now?" He asked at last. Annoyed by her ignoring him, keeping his back to her like a sulking child.

"Pysche and Cupid" she closed her book. Obviously Loki wasn't going anywhere. Even as he ignored her now, fingers trailing the shelf.

"Ah, a new one. Still quite good. For a bed time story." Darcy wondered if he was weaving a spell around her, the way he whispered his words and followed the shelves encircling her. She scoffed, mostly at the idea he was describing a story from 150 A.D. as new.

"You don't like it?"

"It's hard for me to relate." She grinned cat-like at him as he turned from the books. He was like a man posessed the way he kept returning to them despite their commonness.

"You think you wouldn't betray your lover?" There was a dark fascination in his voice as he turned his eyes fully on her again.

"I think that if the sex was good enough with the lights out I am fine that he is a giant snake. And he is gone all day? A perfect arrangement if you ask me." She wanted to shock him but she realized once the words left her mouth he might have been baiting her.

"So gifts of gold and a little darkness is all it takes to seduce Darcy Lewis?" He stalked from the shelf toward her, around them the warm yellow lights of the library flickered out. It was not just darkness, but pitch black so Darcy couldn't see anything at all. She could feel though. She could feel more hands than any man should have; gripping her waist, spreading her knees and running over her thighs. And lips, brushing cold and soft over her own. She felt her stomach drop like a stone and desire replace the organs of her body. She was a shell made for lust and sensation. And she didn't have time for it. She reached with her hands, willing them in the dark to find his face, to still him. They did, fingers finding the smooth hollows of his cheeks. He hissed out breath as if he didn't expect to be touched in return.

"I would prefer not knowing he is a snake ahead of time," she whispered against his lips before pushing him away. "I thought we decided no sex? My debt was paid by being an agent of chaos."

"I have been thinking about your debt-" he moved from her grip, many hands becoming two framing her face in the dark.

"Turn the lights back on Loki" she said firmly his mouth moving to her jaw.

"Only if you will close your eyes." His lips were at her ears. She really didn't have time to do this. Especially not after watching Thor turn Jane inside out with disappointed hopes for two years.

"I have class soon"  
"Don't go. Go somewhere with me"

"Where?" She asked curiousity getting the better of her.

"Anywhere," the lights came on but they were no longer in the library. On all sides was a beautiful landscape. Low white stucco houses, rough hewn stones and a calm dark blue ocean. He was nowhere near her, leaning against a low stone wall looking out to the sea.

"Are we in Greece?" She thought it looked exactly as she imagined it. Too exactly as she imagined it.

"I thought it thematic." He grinned at her.

"Why is it cold?" She joined him at the wall. There was chilly air passing over her as if she was beneath an air vent. She wrapped her arms around herself.

"Once the sun starts to go down the wind off the water is cold." He answered matter of factly, placing warming hands on her shoulders as they both looked out at the ocean.

"And it's sunset in Greece right now?" She scraped her brain to remember how timezones worked.

"It is whatever time you want it to be," he spoke low in her ear. Her fingers brushed the stone. She focused, trying to find flaws and edges in the illusion. Her fingers brushed leather and she pulled from the stone wall a well-worn library book. She held it up for his inspection. His face fell for barely a second before he took it from her.

"Thats the problem with you Loki. Nothing is ever real." Greece melted and they were leaning shoulders against a shelf instead of looking at an ocean.

"This Darcy Lewis, is exactly why I require more from your debt." Loki snapped the book closed and vanished as sulently as he had arrived.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wherein the Authour continues to embarrass herself for AnonymousMink's amusement

Loki opened his eyes to see the bright white ceiling of his cell. He felt the pitons Odin had driven into the chains of his magic tug. As if they knew he had gone but could do nothing to stop it. He was reclined on the narrow bed his mother had given him. He wondered if Frigga knew every time she visited that she left tiny tears in the binding of this place. That Loki could gather them like cobwebs as he bided his time. That when he had enough he could drop into other realms. He would eventually be tugged back, the invisible restraints burning into his skin.

If he grew impatient a single visit from his mother allowed him to project into a realm. It left him tired and weakened but it broke up the monotony enough he craved the opportunity to wreck his body in such a way.

He forced himself to sit up. The tinkling of the invisible bindings grating on his nerves. Could no one else hear the way his chains rattled? Was that to be part of his punishment? Constantly plagued by the sweet rattle of gold. He could see them if he forced his mind to it, see the deep yellow metal forged into tiny links.

He did not bother now, he had other problems weighing on him. She was distracting him.

She shouldn't have been able to touch him. He was not there. Not bodily at least. How could she touch something without a body? She was a disruption to the natural order.

Loki stood and began to pace. The shushing silver slithering of the chains becoming so even and rhythmic they were like an ocean. His eyes glanced to his table where he had laid the book he had received from the Titan. Loki had expended so much effort to claim it and yet he had discarded it unopened once he returned.

Once he had it the urgency was gone, the desire to possess sated. Instead, it became an ugly burdened thing. He had wanted some small piece of her in this place. He had wanted the comfort of her but the encounter with Miss Lewis had unbalanced him. At first he had brushed it away that she had seen through his glamour. His magic was weakened, perhaps those who knew his face, knew something of him, could not be easily fooled. Then he had appeared to her in the library. He had wanted to frighten her, he had wanted to stalk around her until the impenetrable Darcy Lewis was shaken to her core. Instead she had reached out and touched him. Pushed him away. Tugged at the edges of his magic with her distrust.

It was infuriating.

He walked to the book and picked it up. It pricked at his heart in an unwelcome way. He had encountered fakes before but the one the Titan had given him had pulsed with her, every page woven with a strand of her delicious addicting power. He traced the gilding on the cover with his long pale fingers. Sigyn.

The name was dark and forbidden on his tongue. He had never spoken it again after she left. When he did think of her, when he allowed his mind to wander to the dark place he kept her, she had no name, no shape. She was only the first betrayal. His first lesson on what could be stolen away from him. An excellent teacher on the deceptive power of words.

Words like beloved. Forever. Wife. They stirred the heart even when they contained no truth. Words were powerful. She had wielded them as one would a sword. And she had been more magnificent than a Valkyerie.

She was comfort because she was an ache he knew every crest and valley of. She was a familiar pain to ease every new wound. A spectral reminder that even before he knew the truth of his birth, nothing had ever truly belonged to him.

He opened the book. The first page had a smudged thumbprint of ink. Small, delicate. He traced this too, bearing his teeth at the book. How he had been under than thumb. How she had pinned him in place and toyed with him until she was bored.

He never knew what she wrote in here. Only that it was always on her person. He flipped through the thin pages, each decorated with her sloping, even hand. One dated page jumped out at him.

October 27th, 1886.

He knew that was the day in Midgard when they met.

He had been diverting himself. His brother was content to stay in Asgard but Loki had journeyed beyond to see the Nine Realms. He had not had much hope for Midgard. His expectations had been met by the dirty, dark place he had landed. Little did he know one day more than a century in the future he would return to rain death from the sky in the same city, New York.

_They had been promised an evening of diversion. Loki was curious what passed for entertainment here. Apparently not much. He had been rather thoroughly bored by the dinner and the conversation. The dancing was of no interest to him, even though his host had encouraged him to enjoy himself. He had anticipated a treat that evening and their benefactor had woefully failed to deliver on his promise._

_That was until he had felt the frission of great power enter the room. He had been standing facing the fireplace, an untouched drink in one hand and the other resting on the marble mantle. When she had entered the shock of her had been so great the clenching of his hand had cracked the smooth white stone. He heard around him the murmur and rustling of other guests turning. He didn't turn around. He stayed frozen reaching out with his other senses. Her voice had been low and sweet. Heavy like honey._

_"Master Fox, I have prepared everything as you asked. The spirits have gathered. If your guests would care to join me."_

_A medium. He smiled an icy wicked smile. That power was radiating from a swindler and a pretender. These tender foolish Midgardians had made themselves putty in a witch's hands. He wanted to laugh as there was a ripple of movement and the crisp sound of silks sweeping from the room._

_"Do you not care to join us?" Her voice was near him, she had crept through the sounds of the crowd and snuck up on him. He turned mouth ready to answer her but no words came out._

_She was blonde. A veil hung over her eyes so only a wonderfully red bow of a mouth could be seen. Her hair was loose over her shoulders. Cascading scandalously down her back in artful curls. Her dress was so black it seemed to pull light from the air around her. He knew enough of Midgardian convention to know her appearance was intentionally provocative, all the trappings of modesty but something forbidden and wild beneath the surface. Bewitching to weak willed mortals._

_"And what can I expect to see?" He asked inclining his head._

_"The many wonders of the occult. And perhaps find comfort from those that have left you," she ducked her head demurely, through the netting of her veil Loki could see the shadow of fluttering lashes. Power continued to roll off of her. Loki wondered if she was ignoring him or if she knew he too contained unbelievable power._

_"I am not easily impressed," he offered her his arm and she took it. Her laughter was like the sound of bells._

_"Every man says that but I win them over in the end." When she tilted her head to look at him the veil shifted, he could see her brilliant blue eyes framed in dark blonde lashes._

_"I am in the mood to be persuaded."_

Loki snapped the book shut and thought of hurling it across the room. He could feel her sweet annoyance and anger spike in him, as if the book would be mad at him for abusing it. He tossed it on his bed instead enjoying the way it bounced and skittered across the covers. The page had not mentioned him. It was deceptively bland. Unlike it's owner. Sigyn had been captivating from the first moment. Saying her name was like flogging his heart and the flagellation brought its own ecstasy.

"You think you still own me, witch?" He asked the book. He could have sworn the gold of the cover glinted at him like a wink. He crouched before his bed and whispered to it. "I will cut open your spine and bed another woman on your pages. What will you do about that?"

The book did not move, but he felt the magic hiding between its covers shake at him. Fury, disgust, pity all tasting like Sigyn's voracious mouth moved through him.

He apparently had her attention.

* * *

Darcy woke up on the couch in her apartment. Jane was still gone and the place was as silent as New York City could get. She rolled onto her back and looked at the ceiling. There was a water stain looking down at her.

"Hey Michael Bolton, way to let a girl fall asleep," she whispered to the square jawed shape in her plaster. She thought of him as her own guardian angel.

All the lights were out in the place. When she had fallen asleep the sun had still been up. It made the apartment feel one thousand times lonelier. Darcy missed having company. She wanted Jane back. Since she had encountered Loki twice she felt vulnerable. She tucked her thumb into her sleeve and rubbed the drool from her cheek. She was even dreaming of him now. Dreaming they were in a ballroom like it was _Titanic_. Dancing together. He had looked down at her so tenderly she could almost have believed it wasn't him. It was some other high cheekboned god. Except he had whispered in her ear as the dance drew them closer and it had been his voice without a question promising her every wicked earthly delight. She pressed her knees together trying to forget the library and the fascinated way he had looked at her.

She felt like the fly who had flown unwittingly into a golden web.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this updates so infrequently, I have other WIP and this one is more when the mood strikes but thank you for anyone reading it and commenting!  
> 💙❤💜💚DH

Sigyn never tired of rich men. They were singularly and outlandishly entertaining. Never more so than when they tried to buy her. They tromped around the dirty streets of New York like tiny Aesir never once aware of their own insignificance. They never ceased to amuse.

Her long pale leg hung out of the large clawfoot tub, water ran down it puddling on the carcinous green glass tile of her floor. A tight rolled cigarette was between her lips and she pulled in the tingling white smoke with the joy of someone without lungs to poison. She viewed the letters in her hand through the haze mixing with the steam of her bath. She was popular in the New York social circles. A fact that had be predetermined by her very nature. She was Victory's friend. An Aesir but without the charge and care of any force in the universe. She was not the goddess of Victory or Hunting or Sex. She was merely the divine friend of fate. But the Midgardian mortals were powerless against her.

She had arrived here beneath the cover of night. Heimdall had let her descend, she was not sure why, but she suspected as she had the love of Victory no hurdle could truly stop her. She had arrived with nothing but now lived in a glorious set of suites that over looked bustling streets of the stock exchange. She deeply enjoyed Wall street, she felt herself charged by the proximity to wealth and triumph. It allowed her easy access to amusement.

Although it also exposed her to things she had not expected. Things she could not forget.

She was not the Goddess of Justice and unlike the sultry hipped statue outside their courthouses she was not painted blind by her divinity. She could see what the minor Aesir of capitalism would not see; all around them women rotted and starved. Pretty frail beauties who were poppeted off their mortal coil by the condition of their sex. Sigyn had mourned for them. And burned for them. She would cast these women as Victory and befriend them but she had nothing but the smokey magic of Asgard. Something burnt into her innards by godly light that could conjure and deceive but not make wealth or happiness.

So instead she had taught the women deception. She had armed them with small spells that pulled from the dull midgardian atoms glamours and illusions to frighten gold from mighty men's pockets.

She used her beauty to popularize the trade of the lady occultist and grew her coven in the blackened heart of New York. Soon all the wealthy families were gripped by the fever of the trend.

So she was inundated with their fantasy. Invitations begging for her to astonish and amaze. And Sigyn could barely stomach it. She grew weary of a world that lacked the majesty of natural magics. Their child-like devotion to fear was the most endearing part.

And scare them she could. She could see into their hearts and speak their fears. She could summon apparitions to terrify them. She could shake the walls and the furniture.

It made her feel powerful to control them in the palm of her hand. She was always the strongest in the room until that night.

When she met him she had been unsure at first. She had felt a power in the room unlike any she had felt since leaving Asgard. When he turned around his face was as handsome as a prince of Asgards but she had never served the family loyally and could not be trusted to know their likenesses.

His arm in hers had confirmed for her the power came from him. She had been coy. It would be no fun to reveal the game immediately. She had watched his shadowed eyes like agate stone in the glow of the spectres she had conjured. They did not waver from her but had watched her with naive intensity. She wondered who had let an unripe boy of Asgard descend into the wilds of the Nine Realms.

She also wondered as light flickered over his high cheek bones if there was a reason Heimdall had let her come first.

She had hoped one of the letters would come from him but she was disappointed until there was a knock at her door.

"Yes, darling" she had called loud enough that Euphemia could hear her.

"You have a visitor my lady. Should I erect the screen?" Effie called. There was the near silent creak of leather in the hall and she felt it. The shudder of power in the house. The addictive magic of Asgard.

"Yes," she answered placing the letters to the side and stubbing her cigarette into the bone ash tray. The door opened and closed with snapping efficiency.

Her maid curtsied and quickly pulled the wood divider around to shield her bath from the door. She could see small slivers through the slats and Effie's crisp blue uniform was dissected by angled mahogany. She heard murmured greetings and the soft click of Effie walking back down the hall.

He hovered on the other side of the screen like a caged and hooded hawk. Aware he was being watched but unable to see his captor. His inexperience was delicious to her. It was rare to find fresh gods, their flavours light and sugary. Unfermented by time. Except where new wine was sour, he was sweet and full of seeds like unset jam.

"It wasn't my intention to find you like this, madame. You have me at a disadvantage." He spoke hesitant words but with syllables cast in ice. Hard. Slippery.

"A new experience for you," she murmured. "Do you like it?"

"Do I like what?"

"Being at a disadvantage?"

He didn't answer her but paced around the outside of the room. She heard the clink of bottles on her vanity.

"Looking for potions? Eye of newt, perhaps?" Sigyn lifted her leg back beneath water. The skin stung with the new heat on flesh that had turned to marble as she read. The splash was unmistakable. A sensual reminder that she was vulnerable and undressed so close to him.

"Do many men accuse you of bewitching them?"

She laughed at him. Mortals could never resist her laugh. The falling of coins or the ringing of bells. It was a gold plated sound and inside them greed burned.

"All of them."

"Then you are familiar with my plight?"

She heard the sounds of silver and jewels moving against each other like the unpracticed scrape of a violin bow.

"I am familiar with many of the ways men would try to relieve it."

He chuckled and she heard the click of pearls being lowered to the smooth porcelain countertop one by one. Patient. Steady hands. Curious. A beautiful voice. He had such potential. She smiled and pulled her fingers beneath the water. Wrist downwards and her hand held like a flower set to unfurl. She focused her magic and lifted it from the water quickly so she felt the rush of it like life between her fingers. She opened her hand as it broke the surface and deposited a perfect white water lily on the lapping surface of the water. Its petals the waxy white of an altar candle but the centre jewel red like virgin blood on sheets. The young man stiffened on the other side of the screen. She could feel the tension in him. He could feel her magic. He could probably taste it in the back of his throat. The bitter sting of orange peel, the oil thick on his tongue and burning.

"I have read tales of other gods since coming here and they say Ichor is what is in their veins," she said slowly conjuring more and more lilies. The water glowed gold with their tiny filament roots bursting with magic. "I think you can taste it now down the back of your throat."

"I think it is time you revealed yourself," he said with a tight voice.

"I can't get much more exposed," she laughed at him as the water licked at the porcelain. She could tell he hated the way she laughed at him but he craved it too.

"Tell me your name enchantress," he stalked along the line of the screen and she could see his moss green eyes.

"I am no enchantress," she sniffed at the thought. "Buy my name with yours."

"My name is worth more," she could hear his grin.

"For it you can have my name and I will allow you to come around the screen."

He laughed at her. He was surprised.

"You think I care enough to hunt you in your bath? Are you a water nymph?" There was cold derision in his voice but she knew he wanted the answer desperately to who she was and why she was on Midgard. She could taste it in him.

"I think you don't like being kept out of places," she relaxed her hold on the spell so the glimmer of the barrier hovered in the air. His eyes followed its light, his hand tracing the interlocking links of gold.

"I could pass this if I wanted. Nothing so simple could contain me."

He pressed his hand against it, testing the metal. It sizzled against him and he pulled his hand away hissing. She laughed at him sinking a little lower into the lily covered water.

"Who forces a door when they have the key in their pocket?"

She felt the weighty silence descend. He breathed in and she could feel his intention manifest and push against her defenses. It would be useless. Her magic was older than his, more skilled. Subtle like creeping vines or drifts of snow. His was too warm, to immaterial like sunshine between leaves.

He breathed out as slowly.

"Loki Odinson," he said in a voice like music. She wondered if he knew his name was its own incantation. She straightened a little, the water making sloshing noises and trickling off petals over the edge of the tub.

"Your highness," she tried to sound breathless. In awe. "Welcome to the home of Sigyn."

He walked around the screen with tidy long strides. He stood at the foot of the claw foot tub and watched her hungrily.

"Sigyn?"

"Was it a satisfying answer?" She smiled at him, running her finger through the intricate petals of one of the flowers she hid beneath.

"You are a long way from home," he said creeping closer to the tub. She wondered if it was her or her magic that held his eyes so intensely.

He ran his fingers along the edge, pale long fingers. He was dressed immaculately in Midgard attire, in his hand was a brushed silk top hat. Useless in the cloudy rainy weather but she was certain water never touched him without his permission.

"So are you, your Highness." Sigyn bowed her head. She was no longer sure she knew where this interview was going. Would he order her back to Asgard? Did he care she meddled with the mortals of a distant realm?

He plucked a flower from the water and the tiny glowing roots spilled water over the back of his hand and soaked his cuff.

"You have cunning magic," he commented placing the flower inside his top hat. His hand waved over it in a small motion. When he reached in again a gold and black snake wrapped around his wrist. "Are you fearless of drawing Odin's attention?"

Sigyn felt her breath catch. She did not guess how the Allfather would feel about her presence on Midgard but he would not like her courting the mortals' favours. He liked to leave the Realms in peace. Last thing he needed was their foolishness rising up against the old gods as they once had.

Loki dipped his hand into the water again and the snake unfurled from his wrist, slipping through the water. She felt it caress her leg. Slow and intimate. An extension of his will.

"I have heard you are silver tongued, this was not the negotiation I anticipated." Sigyn tried to calm her heart as the snake was only visible flitting between the petals. Every once in a while it caressed her.

"I never use only one tactic," he smiled at her but there was no warmth. The snake wrapped around her knee, cold and strong. Her blood boiled at his youthful confidence. Sigyn was unaccustomed to anything but worship.

"Once again you have the key, your Highness. You need only ask and I will serve the son of Odin." Her gaze had no warmth or passion. This was not her agreeing to seduction.

"Then serve me here, Sigyn."

She inclined her head in agreement and felt the questing head of the snake press against her thigh.

* * *

Darcy woke in a sweat. Her throat ached with an airless shriek. She pushed the covers away from her and kicked her legs until nothing touched her. She curled up and grabbed her knees, heart racing.

"I hate snakes," she moaned to no one in the darkness. Jane was not back yet and she was all alone.


	5. Chapter 5

Sigyn kept the room intentionally dark. The darkness was illuminating. It allowed the eye to see clearly the magicks produced by the body. It also intimidated.

Sigyn didn't want the girls to be scared but she wanted them to be wary. To understand the forces they meddled with. She opened her book and carefully dated the top. The beginning of an incantation. The girl was due soon and Sigyn felt the growing anticipation in her stomach. She felt it every time she began a new work, a new project. The quivering and quickening of power.

Effie opened the door and a golden rectangle spilled over the floor. A slim figure was abandoned in the darkness as Effie closed the door with an efficient and heartless snap.

"Hello?" A voice hollowed out by hunger broke through the silence.

Sigyn stayed silent. This was the first test. Bravery would be needed and hunger for what had been denied. Victory, wealth, retribution. The girl knew that the witch off Wall Street would be able to help her. Sigyn never summoned or invited but she felt in the dawn air the intention of one of her sisters. The breaking of the spirit that unleashed the rising Phoenix. She had dressed with speed and summoned Effie, they must dowse the fires and chill the house.

"I know you are in here," she insisted. "Once my eyes adjust I want to talk."

"Take your time," Sigyn answered her, her pen moved in the darkness but she could clearly see the words she wrote as they glimmered gold deep in the page. The power sinking deeper than the thin sheet. Connecting beneath to words already written. Spells already created. Women already lifted beyond their meager means.

The girl strode boldly towards the table. Her eyes adjusted and Sigyn's voice giving a clue to her location. She sat down across from her, not waiting for an invitation. Sigyn smiled.

"Well?" The Girl asked as Sigyn's pen scratched and the silence stretched on.

"What's your name?"

"Imogen," the girl answered. Too quickly.

"What's your real name?" Sigyn asked, her finely manicured eyebrows lifting.

"None of your beeswax," Imogen sneered. Sigyn was amused. It was like trying to soothe a soaked cat. The girl shivered in the icy house. "My Ma told me never to give a faerie or witch your name. Especially if they ask."

"Your mother's a wise woman. I meant no harm in it."

"I will be the judge of that," the girl set her chin defiantly. Sigyn liked her. She looped inside her words a spiky spine. A dragon for the pile of gold Sigyn would make for her. "Ma said the devil puts your name in their book."

"What did you come for, if not to put your name in my book?"

The girl was taken aback. In the dark Sigyn could see her mouth moving like a fish.

"They said you made Polly heaps of money," Imogen said straight forwardly.

"And is that the only reason you are here?" Sigyn asked pressing her hand to the table. "If I gave you gold would you walk away right now?"

Sigyn lifted her hand and from beneath it spilled more and more gold coins. An impossible number of coins. The light that shone from the gold glinted in Imogen's eyes as they widened.

Sigyn could feel in her the vibrating desire to reach out for them but she wrapped her hands in the ratty wool of her cloak.

"I would much rather know how you make those coins come from the table, ma'am."

"Then I will need your name."

The girl hesitated her mouth opening and sound begining to form. Sigyn held her pen ready to complete the spell when a freezing wind blew through the room. Green glowed beneath the door and power surged. Sigyn knew the taste of it immediately.

Imogen rose in righteous fear.

"Is this your doing ma'am?" She demanded stumbling back from the table, she struggled to be heard over the whipping air. The coins had melted, staining the wood.

"Imogen, sit down. I will only need a moment," Sigyn closed her book before the wind blew the pages to rags.

"No, I will be taking my leave. I was a fool to come," Imogen turned and fled towards the door. As she reached it, it flung open and Loki stood on the other side.

He stepped calmly into the small parlour and the unnatural gusts stopped. Around the room the candles flared green then burned deep orange. Imogen stumbled back in horror.

"You are nothing but the Devil's molly," she cried. "I will never give you my name."

The girl hissed at Loki who looked minorly surprised before stepping out of her way as she tore from the room.

Sigyn rose slowly from her seat, her fingers perching on the table as she tried to stay calm.

"Good Morning, Loki Odinson."

Sigyn walked around the table and crossed the room in three quick strides. She shut the door behind Imogen.

"I find you hard at work this morning, Madame."

"I was," Sigyn sighed as she caressed the wood. "It's a shame. I quite liked her."

Loki looked at her with his brow raised in surprise.

"The dead girl?"

"Yes, I hoped to help her before her fate set in."

Sigyn crossed to the bell pull and tugged it three times sharply. Her sign to Effie that she must remove remains from the doorstep. It was unlikely the unnamed girl had gotten far before realizing her own mortality. She could also re-light the fires now the house no longer hosted a decaying girl. The heat was bad for them before Sigyn stepped in to help.

"You don't seem surprised to have spent your morning with a corpse," Loki observed crossing to the table. He laid his fine silk hat away from the dissolving gold and his eyes fixed hungrily on her book.

"They come that way sometimes. If they give me their name I can return them safely enough. You ruined her chances." Sigyn followed him snapping up her book. The spell broken, Loki turned his attention to the fire. "I can take care of that."

"It's no trouble," Loki passed his hand over the hearth and the wood laid there began to crackle.

"You disrupt my hospitality with your helpfulness," she tucked her book away and turned to him smiling.

He straightened and took her in. Her dress was crushed black velvet, her skin beside it looked almost white. She was, he thought, an icy vision even in Midgardian clothes. Her smile was alluring, welcoming even. He could almost believe she was happy to see him. He wanted her to be, he realized.

"Can I offer you tea? Coffee?" She asked sliding her fingers along the back of a chair.

"Nothing, thank you."

"Is this a social visit, Son of Odin?" She took her seat again, her hips artfully crooked to stop her bustle from being crushed.

"We agreed you would be in my service on Midgard. I require you tonight."

"Am I allowed to know more?" Sigyn rested her chin on her hand. She still could not figure out why he was here.

"An opera. I have been invited and I feel escorting a mysterious woman like yourself will make the evening easier." He smiled at her. A disarming smile. Sigyn could also smile.

"Shall I appear as I usually do in society or would you like something less somber?" She was fishing for some clue as to what he wanted from her.

"Have you considered green?" He asked collecting his top hat from the table, beneath it was a ticket for the opera. "I shall collect you here at eight."

He did not wait for her answer as he walked from the room. Sigyn reached for the ticket and traced the words "Faust" printed on the heavy card.

* * *

Loki felt the power before he saw her. He lay on his back, tapping his foot being driven slowly insane by the jingle jangle of invisible chains. He ignored her. He had not seen her in a long time. He wondered if it was Odin who kept her away or Thor. Or maybe her own disgust with her monstrous son.

"Will you not even look at me, Loki?"

"I have all eternity to stare at this ceiling. It would be a shame to interrupt it by turning my head," he answered her coldly. Trying to convince his heart to freeze towards her.

"You sulk so prettily, one could almost mistake it for remorse," his mother observed. He could hear the swish of her long dress over the rough paving stones of the dungeon. A reminder she didn't belong in this place. She ventured here only for him. Today, her aim seemed to be to bait him.

"Am I not remorseful enough for you?" He sat up and turned to look at her. She stood tall and proud. Her skin as smooth as marble. She was stunning. Too stunning. Too young. He stood, the chains shushing beneath his feet. "Who are you?"

"Do you not know me?" She asked. She smiled her head tilting in an endearingly exasperated way.

"You want me to believe you are Frigga, mother of Thor, wife of Odin but I was not born to be deceived by paltry illusions."

"Be careful whose magic you insult," she answered him with a quirk of her brow.

"Why? Shall you come passed these walls? You cannot even properly impersonate my mother," he stepped back his hands in a welcoming gesture.

Before him Frigga melted. Standing in her place was a blonde girl child. Barely old enough to lisp her first words. The girl looked up at him with lovely blue green eyes before she went running away towards the entrance of the dungeon.

"What?" Loki was momentarily baffled.

"So, you admit I am your mother?"

He whirled around and Frigga stood behind him. She was sifting through the many volumes he had scattered on his table.

"What is the meaning of this?"

"Loki, we have been lenient-"

"You call this leniency?" Loki asked throwing wide his arms in the low ceilinged cell.

"You have comforts, you still breathe air, you can have visitors-"

"And who visits me? Does Thor? Does Odin?"

Frigga stiffened her hands pausing as she flicked open the tomes.

"You would not welcome them. Your father and brother are not made for the regret you desire from them."

Loki turned away from her, pacing to his bed. With slow steady hands he removed Sigyn's book from beneath his pillow.

"They are not my father and brother," he said layering ache after ache into his voice. He slid the book into his coat. "They are no one to me."

"Loki," Frigga scolded. "There is great power in this room. I have felt it grow. I demand to know what you are hiding here."

He whirled around, his face in a congenial grin. "Where is there to hide anything? All that I have you can see. All that I am is before you. My kingdom is a humble one. Odin saw to that."

Frigga stepped around the table to him. He stepped away from her, his head bent with hurt. "Can you still not admit your role in your own imprisonment?"

"The things that I have seen - " he paused. "I know Midgard better than any other realm. Thor thought he could place it under his protection? It was already mine. I had merely returned to rule it."

Frigga looked at him sorrowfully. He wished he could reach for her. Close the distance between them but Sigyn's power burnt his chest like stolen gold and his steps were frozen.

"When I find it, Loki. If you force me to have Odin take it from you I cannot promise to protect your circumstance. You will have forced both our hands."

"I have nothing Odin has not already taken."

His mother began to fade. Leaving behind the small splits in the realm. Magic he could gather up. He would need it if his mother knew of the book. He felt for her. Tried to decide if her leaving was some trick.

He would need to be patient. To hoard the doorway she made and return to Midgard. He needed to protect the relic newly reclaimed.

He could think of only one person and he did not know why.

* * *

Darcy could barely keep her eyes open. Between the weird dreams, the beige lecture hall, and the meanderings of the professor she desperately wanted to just shut her eyes and fall asleep. Her head kept nodding forward, the motion jerking her awake and making her glasses slide down her nose. The coffee in the take-out cup in front of her so putrid she could barely stomach drinking it.

Her pen scratched idly on her paper, her notes drifting off to meaningless loops and doodles.

She adjusted her glasses, her head already falling forward again.

"Is this what passes for teaching on Midgard?" A warm voice whispered in her ear. Darcy jumped swallowing her gasp. The choked sound from her mouth caused a few angry stares from the people in front of her. She turned her head slowly and looked at Loki. He was one row behind her, crouched so his mouth hovered at her ear.

She pointedly looked back at the professor, desperately curious why no one seemed to notice that the RenFaire had moved in behind her.

"Don't worry only you can see me," he said lowly in her ear. Darcy turned her head and tried to give him a look that said both 'why would you think that's comforting?' and 'then why are you whispering?'

"I have come to talk about your debt."

Darcy flipped to a fresh page in her notebook and wrote in large block letters "WHAT DEBT?"

"Do you forget why you are here, Miss Lewis?" He brushed a wayward curl behind her ear. Even with his body barely there he found her compelling to touch.

"Go Away," she scribbled across the page.

"I have need of your services."

She tapped what she had written before, then underlined it.

"Yes, very coy. However, I do not have time to convince you properly."

Loki slipped something from beneath his coat and laid in on Darcy's cramped desk. She saw it was a small leatherbound book. She reached to lift the cover but Loki's long pale hand stopped her, forcefully closing it. As he whispered in her ear she was very aware he was curled around her, his arm reaching over her shoulder.

"I must forbid you from opening it. For your own protection, Miss Lewis."

"?" Darcy scratched onto the page.

"Why?" If possible he spoke even closer to her skin, each syllable practically licking her earlobe. Darcy ordered her body not to shiver. "The woman who owned this was very powerful. It is not meant for Midgardian eyes."

Darcy emphatically circled the question mark on the page. Her eyes were locked on the book. Every rebellious fibre in her being wanted to open it. She would wait until Loki left.

"Why am I asking you to hold onto it? It's not safe in Asgard any longer and frankly no one would suspect our connection."

She flicked her eyes to him. He always seemed to forget how blue they were, how similar to- he wouldn't go there. He fell silent looking at her and she derisively widened those eyes at him jabbing at her writing.

"For how long?" He glanced at Sigyn's book. In truth, he did not know. It could take the whole of her mortal life just to escape his prison. "I will return as quickly as I can."

He made to leave pulling back from her but a thought struck him. He reappeared in front of her. She looked up at him as he towered above her, her mouth slightly agape.

"I almost forgot, Miss Lewis. Given the company you keep, I must insist on your silence on this matter."

He caressed her jaw, his finger curling beneath her chin. He ran his thumb over the soft full curve of her lip. He wove a tiny golden thread of magic over her tongue as he felt the firmness spring beneath him. He wondered for a moment, if kissing her would make a stronger spell but he imagined Sigyn's fury descending on warm lush Darcy Lewis and he let go of the thought.

Her eyes were narrowing at him but she was trapped by the eyes and ears of her classmates. He released her and allowed himself to fade away, the heat of her breath still against his skin.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I realize that because I started this as a one shot that slowly grew to multi-chapter my first couple chapters aren't perfectly meshed. I have decided to leave them as they are and consider continuity starting from Chapter 3 on.
> 
> Please forgive my laziness. It is my defining characteristic.  
> ❤💜💙💚DH

Darcy's eyes kept flicking to the book as the professor droned on. Loki had faded in a sizzle of green, as he slipped away Darcy thought she heard the jangling of chains. She tried not to let the gold plated sound weigh on her.

Loki had earned chains, and a swift kick in the balls. She scratched her pen into the paper making a deeper and deeper rut as she gave in and let her eyes gaze at the book. Her vision blurred and her eyes unfixed slightly almost as if the book would not let itself be seen. Darcy didn't look away though. She kept one ear tethered to the lecture focusing on words she pulled at random. She used them to anchor herself as she continued to stare at the book with drying unfocused eyes. She could almost believe the book trembled with rage, gold glinting between the pages.

"Will you put your name in my book?" A sharp voice hissed in her ear. It had been a desperate hungry voice. Said with a pale and shrivelled tongue like something kept too long under a rock. Darcy jumped out of her skin. Her hand instinctively hurled her pen in the direction of the voice. Her eyes refixed their gaze on the leather and she looked up to see the class silently staring at her.

"Dang wasps," she announced loudly to no one, sliding down in her chair and subtly covering her face. They all turned back and the professor began speaking again.

Darcy tapped a frustrated finger against her temple, teeth angrily scraping across the lip Loki had touched. Wasps, Lewis? Wasps? She berated herself. It was October. In New York. Cockroach was the obvious lie. She was so annoyed. She felt it coursing through her more purely and divinely than she ever had before. Just another task she didn't understand from someone who just took off. Who left Darcy on ice holding the bag. Or the book, so to speak.

She looked around, chewing her cheek. She fidgeted and drummed her back up pen on the desk. Someone shushed her and she raised her hand apologetically. She looked anywhere but the book. Her eyes roving the room, her face trying to look innocent. Like a sad puppy on a get well soon card.

She counted to ten, her hand with the pen creeping slowly towards the book. Her eyes fixed on the ceiling as she waited to feel the tremble of electricity and for Loki to reappear telling her she failed some test.

He didn't. So Darcy flicked the book open with her pen. Nothing happened. No wails of trapped spirits, no rumblings of Hell surging through the Earth.

Darcy looked at the book and suddenly she was falling.

She landed on her feet in a world of changing light. Like clouds before a storm. The nothingness seemed to stretch in every direction. The only thing interrupting the grey was a woman. Her long blonde hair was loose in waves that would have made any 00s girl squeal "beach-y". Her dress was no more than drapes of white cloth gathered in a gold belt around her waist. Her skin was so pale it seemed to glow. The woman looked surprise to see her.

"Am I the first to meet you?" She asked in an echoing voice. Her lips quirked in a viscious smile. She looked too pleased.

"Are you the Wal-Mart greeter to Purgatory?" Darcy asked with raised eyebrows. When encountering something inexplicable she found asserting dominance threw them off their rhythm.

The woman laughed but Darcy suspected she didn't understand the joke. That she, Darcy, was actually the punchline.

"You are so weak and mortal," the woman's eyes were alight with delight. "What would he do with you?"

The woman was obviously b-a-n-a-n-a-s. Darcy whistled. "Man what did Tall, Dark and Horny get me into?"

"Who?"

"Loki," Darcy poked her fingers up around her ears. The blonde cackled loudly.

"So he did send you. What know you of the Son of Odin?"

"What know I? I know lots."

The woman walked towards her, slow even steps.

"Tell me, Relic. How is it we have found each other first?"

"Hey who are you calling a Relic? I was born in the 90s."

"You were never born, Relic." The woman's voice was icy. Darcy wanted to pull her cardigan tighter around her.

"Listen, you, me and Karen may feel it would be better that way but I assure you I have the emotional baggage and student loan debt to prove it."

"What do you think your name is?"

Darcy hesitated. If this woman was in the book and the book wanted her name then it was probably a bad thing to say out loud.

"None of your beeswax, Marilyn."

"Marilyn?" The woman repeated as she prowled around Darcy, all glowing blonde perfection.

"You're a blonde sex bomb with issues. You got a better name?"

"I have the most powerful name in Asgard. The name that you share, Relic."

"And that is?"

"Sigyn." The woman stood with open palms and her head throw back as if divine lightning would strike her.

"Okay, Siggy. I would like to go back now."

"Back? We have only just found each other, Relic."

"Stop calling me that. What does it mean?" Darcy curled her hands in frustration.

The woman looked at her as if she was weighing her. Deciding whether or not to believe her. Her blue eyes were like tiny storm clouds as she ran a hand over Darcy's sweater sleeve. Darcy flinched.

"When Sigyn was taken from Loki by the Allfather for her crimes of seduction and malice, he knew no force could stop his son from purusing her. Regaining his stolen bride. So Odin severed the witch into seven pieces and hid them, each in different realms."

"Severed as in into body parts?" Darcy felt a little nauseous.

"Not exactly. The punishment was not death but exile. Exile from Asgard and from her Aesir-hood. She would no longer be worshipped. Loki would no longer be her thrall." A look of disgust crossed the woman's face as she began to pace. Her diaphonous dress nearly floating as rage simmered off her. "He tore apart what she was. Her body, her memories, her love, her sorrow, her true powers, her immortality and me."

"And who are you?"

"Her fury," the woman turned and looked at Darcy, new golden light crackled through her.

"And who do you think I am?" Darcy pointed at her face. Other than blue eyes and killer fashion sense this woman and her had nothing in common. The woman gazed judgementally at her.

"You are the relic, the body made to hold us all."

"Is that a fat comment? Considering the fact you kidnapped me, I suggest you walk back the attitude."

"Every lifetime Sigyn's relic is born anew, brought by the Norns to a virgin-"

"Woah. Karen was no virgin, okay? You got the wrong girl. So let's pop me back into class so I can get a burrito before my World History exam."

"You have secrets, but I assure you that we would not be speaking now if you were not the Relic."

"What would happen if I wasn't?"

"You would be dead. Only Sigyn's body could hold her fury."

"Listen lady, I am done holding things for other people." Darcy backed up as the woman stalked closer to her. She held up her hands ready to shove her and run if she got too close. Not that she knew where to run to.

Suddenly the woman's mouth opened wide and from it a bird's shriek tore at her throat. Darcy froze in panic as light flared around the woman and her body became that of a giant eagle. She flew faster than Darcy could blink, slamming with burning pain into her.

Darcy's back hit the chair hard and she opened her eyes in the empty lecture hall. She was sweating and her coffee had spilled all over her notes and the floor. She stood up quickly trying to shake the damp away and muttering under her breath. Beneath her ribs something sat hot and tight. She picked up the book and it throbbed inside her. She shoved it in her bag angrily.

Outside it was dark. Her exam was definitely over but she was too shaken to care she had missed it. She needed to get home. She needed to hide the book.

* * *

"Lady Sif, to what do I owe the pleasure?" Loki kept his eyes on the ceiling, tossing an apple above his head over and over. He didn't look at her. His voice dripped with disdain.

"I did not come to drink your ire, Loki." He heard the plates of her armor shift as she rolled her shoulders.

"Then why did you come?" He kept his voice light, bored.

"Your brother-"

"I have no brother," Loki snatched the apple from the air and sat up to look at her.

"No? Nor friends either I suppose." He could almost believe Sif was sad to see him like this.

He turned away again, unable to look at her, his voice hissing with control. "Apparently not."

"Loki," she wanted to soothe him but did not have the gentleness. Sif knew battle. "Thor is being consumed by Midgard and by guilt. He is torn between them like two hounds."

"And what would you have me do, good Lady Sif? Absolve my brother so only Midgard swallows him?"

Sif sighed. Their squabbling always annoyed her. Maybe it was just Loki that had annoyed her, now she sighed at him alone.

"Offer him counsel. You know yourself the pain of separation-"

"Do no invoke my pain to ease Thor's." In one fluid movement he stood and rushed to the shield between them. He reveled as Sif's foot slid back ready to take up arms she did not have. He spoke slowly his words laced with fermented hurt. "His lady is on Midgard. She will live and die within a time of no significance on Asgard. They are meaningless. They are cattle. I loved a woman of Our Realm. A goddess beyond your measure. Midgard was to be our kingdom."

He pounded on the shield, the runes wavering and the chains clashing. Sif's eyes had gone wide seeing him lose even slightly the control he had honed through a life of holding his tongue. Casting it in molten silver to win compliance rather than wrestle for dominance.

"She betrayed you. I know-"

"You know nothing," his face contorted with derision. He hated her in that moment, for the ease with which she prodded old wounds. "Odin called her away from me. Odin bought her love and sold her again to the highest bidder. And that _witch_ stepped willing on his scales."

"Does she still have your heart to provoke such rage in you, after so long?"

"She must my lady," Loki spread one pale long fingered hand over his chest. Stepping back from the shield. "For I find my chest is empty."

"Even for your brother?" She renewed her attack. She never tired of a battle. Even a hopeless one.

"Leave, Lady Sif. You only waste breath."

He turned from her and did not look back.

* * *

Darcy hated the opera. It was not that she was uncultured, it was just music should be something you could dance to. Or at least a little head bobbing. More Mosh pit than orchestra pit.

She couldn't remember how she got here. Or why her ribs were so itchy. She reached down and felt hard boned taffeta meet her questing fingers. She looked down and saw her body spilling out of an emerald green gown. She definitely did not own anything that looked like this.

"Intermission is soon, if you would stop fidgeting." A familiar voice whispered to her. Darcy froze. She turned her head slowly and saw him. Loki. His hair tied neatly back and a pair of opera glasses held to his eyes. It all made sense. A dream. This was all a dream.

The orchestra swelled and the audience clapped. Loki stood and offered her his arm. She took it with a shrug. Why not? It might get to some bodice ripping if she went with the flow.

They walked from their seats in the box and towards the door. The wall had gold gilt mirrors lining it. Darcy saw holding Loki's arm the beautiful blonde. She stopped in her tracks, a trembling hand reaching for the mirror.

"What are you doing?" He hissed looking around to see if anyone observed her pawing her way up to the glass.

"Loki," she turned to him, eyes wide. She let go of his arm, in the mirror the blonde did everything she did. "Who am I?"

He smiled slowly at her, reaching to take her hand before she stepped farther away from him, "You are a Goddess."

"No. No charming," she whipped an accusing finger at him before pointing emphatically to her face. "Who. Am. I?"

"Sigyn? What is wrong?"

"Sigyn," she repeated turning to look at the mirror. The reflection faded as did the world around her. Loki was gone. Darcy could see herself transposed over the serene blonde. She stepped closer, her fingers tracing their faces. The eyes were perfect. The one thing she had always liked about herself and it seemed they belonged to someone else.

"Did I not tell you, Relic?" The woman spoke her eyes beginning to glow like molten gold. "Did I not say you were meant to hold us all?"

"Why? What happens then?"

The woman pounded the mirror and the world shook with each connection to the glass. Darcy stepped away, her heart hammering. The mirror was starting to crack.

"Victory," the woman cackled as light spilled from behind the mirror.

The ringing phone woke Darcy from her nightmare.

She groped in the darkness. She slid open the clunky plastic square.

"Hello?" She croaked. She looked for a clock in her room. Her bedside alarm said 2:15AM.

"Darcy. I am sorry I didn't think. What time is it there?" Jane's voice sounded like it was coming from the bottom of a soup can down the end of a very long hall.

"Jane," Darcy moaned down the phone. She was relieved to hear her voice.

"I woke you up. I am sorry. I couldn't find something and I just phoned you out of habit-" Jane started talking quickly sounding a little breathless. Darcy keened into the receiver mourning both her sleep and her sanity once her boss got talking. She was grateful though. Her dream had been veering rapidly from bodice ripping to Krueger Town. "Darcy what's wrong?"

"It's bad. I screwed up..I screwed up hard."

"Tell me whats happening, are your classes going badly? How are exams?"

Darcy groan knocking her fist softly into her head. She had to explain to Jane. Jane would fix it but it was like she couldn't remember any words she knew, in any language.

"I don't know. I didn't go." That was the best she could do around the halting of her tongue.

"What? You have to go-"

"I got mixed up with a guy. A bad guy," Darcy groaned her tongue faltering around the name Loki. Maybe she should mime?

"Darcy," Jane sighed.

"I didn't mean to I needed money-"

"What?" Jane nearly shouted down the phone. Phrasing, Lewis, phrasing.

"Not like that. I went to a bank and while I was there I met someone and now he won't leave me alone"

"Darcy, call the cops."

"The cops can't help. He is like really bad." She tried to imagine what they would do when Loki merely evaporated from their cruiser. What was that paperwork like?

"I am coming home."

"No. No just stay where you are." Darcy felt stupid. Jane was busy trying to get her life back after Thor's continuing disappearing act.

"I am coming home," she repeated.

"No, you're not. Just stay there. I will take care of it. I am just scared." Darcy pressed the heel of her hand into her forehead. She was rambling.

"Did he threaten you?"

"No, I am losing my mind over everything. Nothing seems real I don't know who I am." Now she was really rambling. How did you tell a scientist a ghost lady had called you a magic box and you were starting to believe her? How had everything gotten screwed up in an afternoon?

"I will tell Erik I am coming home."

Jane wasn't listening to her.

"No, just stop it. You can't rush home when you left me here. I am just here and I am waiting. You put me on ice and I have been going to class and I have been trying so hard, Janey. But all I do is wait for you to need me and I am here and you are there."

Darcy's temper exploded. All the pettiness she had swallowed since Jane announced she would be going to London and Darcy had to stay in New York.

The silence stretched on the other end of phone. Darcy felt regret pouring in around the cracks in her anger. She wasn't really angry at Jane. She was angry at a life spent waiting for others. Feeling like she was waiting for all the pieces to fall into place. It turns out all those pieces might be impossibly far from each other. If she could believe the dreams that felt more real than reality.

"Of course I need you. I need you lots Darcy," Jane's voice was small on the other end of the phone. Darcy scrunched her eyes closed feeling like a villian. "This is my fault"

"No, its not. I-"

"It is. It's okay Darcy," Jane took a deep gulp of air. Not so much breathing it out as digesting it. "I - my father. When I was- what I am trying to say is all I have is my education. It's my rock. It's what gives me meaning. And I miss you so much but I couldn't ask you to put that on hold any longer. I want you to achieve your own goals, Darcy. I didn't mean for you to feel like you were filling time."

"Jane" Darcy wailed, "don't be nice to me when I have been mean to you."

"It's okay. You can be mean as long as you tell me whats going on."

"I can't. I feel like I am losing my mind. All I want to do is tell you and I can't." Darcy half sobbed in frustration. Jane sounded like she was swallowing as hard as Darcy.

"I will come home and you can figure out some way to tell me. Draw it or dance it out. Make a mix CD. Anything."

"How do you have so many degrees and you don't know about itunes?" Darcy groaned. She was relieved. She felt like she could breathe again knowing Jane would come back.

"Show me when I get home."

"Google it, you nerd." Darcy laughed and Jane laughed. Tears leaked out the corner of her eye but the layer of fear, like sweat, the woman had left on her was gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Karen as Darcy's mom's name is a reference to the best Tasertricks fic of all Forbidden Fruit by AnonymousMink. To whom I owe my love of this ship


	7. Chapter 7

Jane woke Darcy up. At first she was disoriented and confused. Did Jane have a super fast way to travel Darcy didn't know about? As she sat up her head ached, her eyes stung.

"Darcy, are you okay?"

Jane still had her coat on, Darcy leaned over and saw her boots were also laced.

"How did you get here so fast? You're going to get airport germs on my carpet," Darcy groaned falling back into the mattress. After she had hung up on Jane the dreams had started again.

"I have been trying to call you for two days," Jane pressed cold hands to Darcy's cheeks making her lips pout as she turned her head to look at her.

"What are you talking about, Silly? We talked last night," the words garbled by her pursed lips.

"That was two days ago," Jane sighed.

"Naw," Darcy made a sound as Jane let go of her face. Jane began to rifle through the covers. "That was last night. If I'd been in bed for two days I would be way hungrier. And I would need to pee."

Jane emerged with Darcy's phone. She tried to power it on but it was dead. She held it up for Darcy to see. Darcy took it from her and slapped it against her hand. She slid it open and closed ineffectively.

"I just forgot to charge it," she mumbled more to herself, searching for the cable. It was in her bag. She crossed the room feeling Jane's eyes on her. "See? You didn't need to come from London. I am fine."

"Tell me about the guy, Darce," Jane pushed softly.

"I can't," Darcy's tongue felt like it was being zapped by a D cell battery. Her hand closed around the book nestled in the bottom of her bag. She pulled it out, staring at it as the place beneath her ribs burned. Her words mumbled and trailed off.

"Darce?" Jane came closer to her. Her eyes on the book. She reached for it, gold dancing just beyond her eyes. "What is that?"

As Jane's fingers brushed the cover, Sigyn's words woke Darcy from her dreaming; no mortal could touch the book. Darcy made to pull it away as Jane's eyes rolled back. Darcy made a feral sound as she dropped the book and lunged to catch Jane.

Jane may be slight but as she sagged it was like trying to hold up a lead anchor. Darcy felt cold sweat against her skin, ripe and rancid, as she fell forward with Jane to the ground.

"No, no, no" she repeated over and over as she tried to drag Jane so she was sitting. She held Jane's face in her hands, her head kept wanting to loll forward. She was breathing but it was shallow. Darcy picked up the book again and flipped the pages hoping to meet the blonde again. To chase after Jane into the world of shifting light.

"Let her go, you Toga Barbie Bitch," Darcy snarled shaking the book by its spine. She felt sick with rage and fear. She could not lose Jane. Not when it had taken so long to learn to work together, not when she had tangled herself up with Loki to stay Jane's intern, not when Jane had dropped everything to come help her. The burning in her gut increased as Jane did not wake. The pressure built and built.

"Jane, wake up," she nearly shrieked as she shook her. She slapped her face but Jane stayed limp. Darcy's hands found the book again. She splayed it opened, gripping a cover in each hand.

"Come help you Asgardian Asshole or I will destroy it," she called tilting her head back and shouting to the ceiling. She felt the words vibrate and rip through her. She swore the apartment shook. She began to pull, gold light appearing in the small split in the spine.

Then the apartment truly was shaking. Ozone burnt the air and blue light shone in a heavy throbbing column. Wind whipped her hair as it stood on static filled roots. Electricity prickled over her skin.

It disappeared as quickly as it came and Thor was standing in her studio apartment.

"Great," she said with a hoarse throat. "Wrong asshole."

Then the world went dark.

* * *

Sigyn had not disappointed. She was a vision in emerald silk, the low plunge of her neckline showed off gently sloping shoulders and décolletage so creamy white she nearly glowed when the lights were lowered. He could barely keep his eyes on the opera.

When she had said she would serve him, she left no mistake that it was out of deference to his father, Odin. He should be numb to Odin's meddling in his life, even when it was not his intention, there was no realm where Odin's name was not known. That was why Loki had chosen to explore the nine realms to try and understand their place in the kingdoms. Midgard was the first he found where they were all but forgotten, passed into legend. Other realms they were loved or hated with equal measure. Careful peace that was balanced upon Odin's life and honour. No such peace existed on Midgard. The gods were dead and new gods ruled. Wealth, gold, money, debt, luxury, these were the new pantheon.

Loki, at first, had been dismissive of the cold and dirty place. He had come to know it differently. He had this enchantress to credit for his vision. She had shown him what easy chaos these mortals could be cast into. She had demonstrated artfully the power void that sucked slowly beneath these wealthy men's feet. In truth , he saw now that they longed to be owned as his people had once owned the kings of Midgard.

The intermission came and they rose from their seats. His thoughts without distraction could not be allowed to be given full reign in the darkness. He desired her too strongly and he could not yet trust any concessions she might make to his flesh if they stayed alone in their box.

He escorted her on his arm, she paused before a golden mirror. Loki slowed his steps. She took a step closer so she could touch the glass with her fingers.

"Do you admire yourself, Madame?"

"No, I admire the couple we make," she answered sweetly. Her hand reached up and traced his lips of the reflection, then her fingers snaked down to trace her own. Loki's fingers twitched and his skin prickled with the strength of her magic.

"You are a goddess," he agreed.

"And you are charming," she answered him, turning away from the mirror. She looked mischevious and warm. He thought she might not mind his escort this evening. She crinkled her nose and caressed the dip beneath her lip. He realized he could feel the sensation in the tips of his fingers of touching her skin.

"Do you enchant me?" He asked incredulous as she took his arm again.

"I would not dare, Son of Odin, I merely enchant my glove."

She reached up and touched the curl of her hair with her free hand. Loki felt her hair like silk whisper between his fingers.

"Your purpose is lost on me," he said with a hesitant breath as they joined the circling crowd of intermission.

"As is yours on me, in seeking my service," she grinned at him like a cat.

It wasn't until they returned to their box once again that her nefariousness was revealed. The music swelled and Loki forced his eyes once again to the stage. That was when he felt the firmness beneath his fingers. A careful tracing of flesh and muscle. He recognized the dip of her elbow.

"Do you mean to distract me with your fidgeting?" He asked softly.

"Am I fidgeting?" She asked with an innocent raise of her eyebrows. She plucked at crisp silk of her gown and savoured the fabric between her fingers. Loki could feel it in remarkable detail. He shifted in his own seat. She was trying to play him. She mistook him for a keening inexperienced whelp if she thought such chaste caresses would ignite pliant lust in him. Except as she traced over the fingers of her other hand he realized it was the potential she taunted him with. His own imagination would do her work for her.

He admired the neatness of her cunning. The elegance in its simplicity even as it turned against him. She stroked her hair again, the long curl unwinding between her fingers before springing back. He kept his eyes on the stage, as his imagination plucked each pin from her hair and let the waves of blonde cascade over her shoulders. He would happily bury his fingers in it.

Next was the tendon of her neck.

"Tell me, Son of Odin, what is it you want with Midgard? Such delights must bore you after having all of Asgard to entertain you."

"What makes you think I desire anything?"

Her hand trailed over the beaded edge of her bodice, barely a ghost of a touch. Loki swallowed the desire to watch the progress of her hand as he felt each cold glass ridge slip over his skin.

"I know the look of a man who wishes to conquer. I see it in your eyes when you look upon the Midgardians."

He did want to conquer but in that moment he would have happily lay down at her feet if only she would crush him.

"And if I do? Are they under your protection?"

Sigyn laughed, she tilted her head back and rewarded him with a sweep of her flesh all the way up the column of her throat. He tightened his fist, longing to hold her there. Pin her beneath him and feel the beating of her immortal heart beneath his fingers.

"No. No, these men are at my mercy," she answered. "If I am to serve you I ask you grant me the privilege to keep them there. I wish for them to suffer as they have made these children suffer."

Loki turned at last to look at her and read the coldness in her eyes as she watched the stage. He thought he would happily burn Midgard for her, if she bore a grudge against it.

"A small price to pay," he answered, "to have such an ally."

Sigyn smiled before placing the glove between her teeth. Loki could not help the sharp pull of air to his lungs as he felt the heat of her mouth and the sting of her teeth. She pulled the glove slowly from her hand and tossed it in his lap. Loki felt his own needy flesh for a moment before the spell fell away like the tinkling of a gold chain.

"Then we have a deal, Odin's son."

* * *

"Darce? Are you okay?" Jane's face hovered in and out of focus above her. Darcy felt her heart racing as she sat up, grabbing Jane's face to pull herself up.

"Jane, you are awake. How are you awake?" Darcy demanded but she had too firm a grip on Jane's cheeks for her to answer so her eyes darted over her shoulder to Thor. That was when Darcy realized she was back in her bed. She let go of Jane, who rubbed her cheeks. "So it wasn't a dream."

Thor held up the book and her eyes went wide. "Have you been having dreams, Lady Darcy?"

"Thor don't touch tha-" then she remembered, he and his brother were gods. "Or I guess you are fine."

"Tell me of your dreams," Thor said thoughtfully. He seemed more centered since she last saw him. His eyes were kind but there was a sadness she ached to see. The worst kind of weight holding him down.

"They are just dreams," Darcy rubbed her hands together. Dreams more real than life. "Weird places, weird people."

Thor opened the book, it was dwarfed by his large hands. "Do you appear as yourself?"

"I feel like me. I look down and see me but in reflections and what L-" her tongue grappled with his name. "What others call me is different."

"Sigyn?"

Darcy froze. Jane sat on the mattress on the floor sinking into the covers Darcy'd kicked into a hamster's nest over what had been apparently two days of impossible dreams.

"If you don't tell us we can't help," Jane reached out and smoothed a snarl of Darcy's hair.

"Who is she?" Darcy asked in a small and cracking voice. The spot beneath her ribs burned at the name.

"That is a matter of who you ask. To Midgardians she is a footnote in a strange tale. More fantasy than history. To Asgardians she is a fallen goddess forgotten by most. To my brother she is his beloved. His wife who betrayed him to serve the Allfather."

Before Darcy's eyes the memory of Loki appeared. The look in his eye as they danced. Her guts clenched.

"I need the can" she mumbled as she clawed her way to her feet. Pulling Jane over in the process. She stumbled into the tiny bathroom and bent over the sink. Her empty stomach heaving as the panic became too much. She kicked the bathroom door shut as she tried to draw breath. The girl looking back at her in the mirror was wild eyed and scraggly. She pulled off her glasses and splashed water on her face. Then she brushed the knots out of her hair.

"Darcy are you okay?" Jane called through the door. Darcy grit her teeth. She wanted to scream and break things. Of course she wasn't okay. She opened the door a crack.

"And who was she to your father and mother?" She asked quietly. If what Sigyn had said was true would Odin kill her? Would Thor let him?

"A seducer. The corruption of their son."

"Loki?" Jane repeated in disbelief. "'Tried to destroy Earth twice' Loki? Corrupted?"

Thor sighed and placed the book on the window ledge, he looked out at New York, barely visible between the tightly packed buildings.

"We know more of Loki's character now than father did then. It is possible the lady Sigyn was misjudged by my father. That she was innocent of Loki's corruption during that time."

The words were pulled from Thor, full of regret and sorrow. Jane practically melted into the carpet looking at him. Darcy opened the bathroom door wider and flicked her in the arm. She flinched rubbing her arm, mouthing " what?"

"Focus," Darcy mouthed back.

"So Odin just assumed what? That she nookied evil into him?" Darcy asked coming all the way out of the bathroom. She started sorting through piles of laundry to find some clean clothes. She needed to keep her hands busy.

"More or less. My brother had been a studious boy. A trickster but never beyond his control. The Loki that returned from Midgard was a shadow of that boy. It was a long time before I recognized my brother in him again. Now that feeling is one I am too familiar with."

"How did you even get this book, Darcy?" Jane asked.

"L-library," Darcy struggled holding the Ls too long.

"The library?" Jane's head tilted as if Darcy had said 'the moon'.

Darcy pressed her forehead into her palms, a tank top hanging loose from her fingers. She felt her anger growing again. Was it really so unbelievable? Books came from the library. Just not this one.

"This book has incredible power. You must have touched it, what happened?"

"I fell asleep," Darcy evaded the question.

"You must forgive me for not believing you, my Lady," Thor came close to her and held her shoulders. Forcing her eyes to his. "The call Heimdall heard, the one that summoned me to Jane's side, was laced with strong magic. It was the call of an Asgardian."

"Darcy?" Jane was looking at her with pale pleading eyes. Darcy shook off Thor and crossed the room to the book. She would destroy it, she thought picking it up again. Jane looked as if she longed to follow her. Thor held out his hand to stop her.

"The woman in my dream called me the Relic. She said I was the body made to hold Sigyn," Darcy laughed bitterly. "Figures. My whole life has been a joke. Might as well be a jar for some crazy chick."

"Lady Darcy, did my brother give this to you?" Thor crossed the apartment in three long strides and took the book from Darcy's hands. She did not have the will to stop him instead she felt her tongue turned to lead. She wanted to moan with frustration but even the air stopped in her lungs. Thor laughed to himself. Darcy glared at him.

"My brother thinks he is very clever but there is a loophole to all his spells. Darcy, who is my brother?"

He paced tapping the book against his palm.

"L-lunatic," she answered. She breathed hard around the word that stung her tongue. "Absolutely cuckoo for cocopuffs."

Thor shared a knowing look with Jane. "See? Not as clever. He might as well have signed his name. Speaking of, what is it, Lady Darcy?"

"L-lucky" she croaked the nearest word her aching mouth would allow.

"See she can't say Loki."

"That hardly seems thorough enough," Jane judged. Trust Jane to question a god's thoroughness.

"My brother is weakened. He did what he could with what power he had available. He didn't think how easily we could test it."

"You mean he underestimated you," Jane looked a little dreamy eyed at Thor. It was so cute Darcy wanted to hit her with a pillow.

"He often does," Thor smiled, the corners of his eyes crinkling but it was the fond smile of memories passed.

"So going to get rid of that Plenty of Fish profile?" Darcy asked growing weary of the goo-goo eyes. She had more pressing matters to worry about. Like the witch living in her.

"Plentiful Fish?" Thor asked his eyebrows raised as Jane stammered.

"It's not what it sounds like. We should be focusing on Darcy." Jane crossed to her throwing an arm about her shoulder and squeezing her too hard. She shot Darcy a look begging her to not say another word.

"You are right. We should go to Asgard and stand before the Allfather. Ask for Sigyn's case to be reconsidered."

"I don't know if that is a good idea. This lady is pissed. Maybe we should just find a way to get her out of me and back in the book?"

"I understand your concerns but if what you say is true then you have only met a small piece of who Sigyn was. It would be unfair to judge her on that alone."

"Okay. I guess I should - pack? Can you pack for space travel?" Darcy looked to Jane who shrugged.

"Do not worry. Asgard will provide all for you."


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone! I am hoping this is my next WIP to be completed
> 
> Comments and Kudos would super encouraging right now 😝
> 
> ❤💚💙💜DH

Asgard may be willing to provide all but Darcy was unwilling to put it to the test when it came to hot showers and underwear. She shoved Jane and Thor into her musty smelling hallway so she could shower and change in peace. The studio apartment was not built for privacy or visitors. She hoped the love birds would work their issues out, it was painful watching them circle around each other. Like prepubescent koi fish, all blinking eyes and confused hormones.

When she opened the door again Jane jumped a mile and Thor looked sheepishly at his shoes.

"Geez you two don't get carried away by the ambiance in this tenement building."

"Are you ready Darcy?" Jane asked tucking her hair behind her ears over and over.

"Ready Freddy," Darcy answered, turning to Thor. "Okay buddy where's your stairway to heaven?"

Thor's laugh crinkled the corner of his eyes.

"I do not understand all your references Lady Darcy, but Heimdall shall open the bridge for us. It will be awkward with three. You have my apologies."

"Do we have to hold onto your cape?" She asked, turning to lock her apartment door. She wondered if she would ever see the inside of it again.

"You may find my middle more reassuring," he answered with a rogueish smile.

"A Thor hug to save my brain? Count me in."

Darcy practicaly skipped the two paces to him and wrapped her arms around his middle. He smelled of mink oil, leather and the tang of metal, but even closer to his skin was the crackling smell of star fire. Darcy did not know why it called to her the way it did or why she knew the scent. She could only assume Thor smelled of it in New Mexico.

"You too, Lady Jane," Thor lifted his arm, beckoning her to wrap her arms around him.

"Oh, I, um," Jane stuttered for a moment, flushing to the roots of her hair.

"Come on Jane, it's free hunk real estate," Darcy teased as Jane approached them as if Thor might bite. She wrapped her arms around his shoulder with her eyes steadfastly on her feet. Thor's look softened as he wrapped his arm around her.

They stood for a moment, an awkward clinging triad before Thor inhaled deeply calling to Heimdall.

Then all became light and motion.

* * *

"These Midgardians were made to be ruled," Loki was emphatic as he paced. Sigyn's blue eyes watched him as she brought her thin cigarette to her mouth and inhaled. The bone white smoke drifted and curled around her refined features as she opened her mouth and let it fall provocatively from her lips. She reminded him of the mists of Vanaheim that poured in the early morning between the outcropping of rocks.

It was dawn now. She was rumpled from sleep, her hair around her shoulders and wrapped in a red velvet dressing gown. No stays, no hoops, no artifice.

"I don't know if they would agree with that observation, my lord," she answered in a low sweet voice. He stopped to watch her, his hands reaching to fix his crumpled clothes.

"Do you side with them?"

"The ones you spend your nights with?" She stubbed out her cigarette and leaned her head into her hand. "Never."

Loki had spent all night among the Midgardian business men. Sowing mistrust into their ventures. He felt the harsh smoke and drink of their carousing tight to his skin. He had seen the women Sigyn sought to free with her magic. He had come here in the early hours to assuage some discomfort beneath his ribs.

"I will bring this realm beneath my power and you may do with them what you please," he said it softly as he made any true promise. He knelt in front of her bowing his head. Her cool hands reached for him and lifted his chin so he looked into her eyes. She was so cold. Like him. He felt they were both carved from the same impenetrable marble. He longed to warm her.

"Have you eaten?" She swept his hair back from his face as one hand continued to hold his chin.

"No," he caught her wrist and turned her hand so he could kiss along her palm. "I cannot stomach what the Midgardians call food."

"Even gods need to eat," she coaxed him. "You will need your strength."

Her sweet concern poured off her in such calming waves Loki was powerless against it. He bent forward and laid his head in her lap. If he surprised her with his weakness she did not show it. She stroked his hair. He thought she might be pitying him.

"You give me strength. Odin cannot know how powerful you are or he would never have let you leave Asgard."

"Perhaps," she answered her finger tracing his ear. "Or he was glad to be rid of a witch with no allegiance."

"My father does not understand power that is not his own. Power he cannot give and take as he pleases," his long fingers traced the pile of her dressing gown.

"Is that why you ran away, my prince? Do you fear the Allfather's influence?"

"I hardly know anymore. I have forgotten everything before you."

She laughed. It was like cold water down his spine. He wished he could sway her, to make her see him as a man.

"That is because you are young and have less to forget."

She stood, upsetting his place in her lap.

"We will eat and you will feel less sullen, my lord"

He watched her glide across her morning room and curled his fists into the upholstery. He wished these Midgard kings would catch fire faster so he could present her with their ashes. Maybe then she would bend to him.

* * *

Darcy stumbled away from Thor, her blood thrumming and her eyes wide. All around them were stars and gold. Their shoes echoed in the room and the world seemed cast in partial twilight. Darcy spun on her heel laughing.

"Oh boy, look at this place. It's like Lord of the Rings threw up in Cher's bedroom."

Thor supported a sagging Jane, Darcy looked back at them and wondered if her boss was going to hurl.

"Lady Jane did you understand those words?" Thor asked. Jane held the back of her hand to her mouth an nodded. "Was it an astute observation?"

"Yeah, yeah she's not wrong," Jane stepped away from Thor on coltish legs.

"The Midgardian with the powerful lungs has arrived," a deep voice echoed behind Darcy. She whirled her fists raised.

"Woah the golden Warcraft statue talked," her eyes traveled the man in impressive armour as he released his sword.

"Heimdall, the Ladies Jane and Darcy join us," Thor walked from the platform.

"Does your father know?" Heimdall asked raising his eyebrow.

Thor's smile faltered. "Not yet, but it is a matter for Asgard."

"Then best of luck to you," his voice rippled deep like a bell

All of Asgard was like something out of a fairy story. Darcy thought Jane's eyes would fall out of her head as she looked around. The view was wasted on Darcy, something about it was boring and familiar. It felt natural to pass through a crowd without even looking at them.

They entered the palace and Thor spoke softly to a guard. The guard in his gold armour nodded and pointed down a hall.

They walked passed a seemingly endless corridor of doors. Randomly their path would open onto a balcony looking out at the city below. Darcy hoped they didn't have to make a quick exit. They would without a doubt get lost.

At last, Thor stopped outside a door that to Darcy seemed indistinguishable from the others. She could almost believe that Thor had led them in circles to intentionally confuse them.

She shook her head to clear the distrust that had crept beneath her ribs and suckered onto her heart. As Thor approached the door Darcy caught a glint of gold. Different than the gold that made up the pillars and arches. That gold was cold and distant. Dead metal heaved from mines. This was warm and pulsed with life. She stepped closer, seeing how it wrapped around the handles. It was thick and coiled like a snake. As she leaned in, Darcy could almost see a heartbeat, as if its scales were translucent.

"Darce? What is it?" Jane whispered. Thor was looking down at her with a strange look in his eye. Darcy blinked her eyes. The illusion was gone.

"Nothing. It's just pretty here," she mumbled.

Thor looked at her one last time before he pounded on the door.

"Enter," a calm voice called. Thor pushed the door open with ease. As she passed Darcy touched the handles, but there nothing was there.

"Thor, I was just about to have tea. Join me," the redhead seated at a low table did not immediately turn to look at them. When she did, she was stunningly beautiful. "Oh, I am short cups."

With a graceful gesture she passed a cup and saucer between her hands. The cup wavered for a moment before becoming two, one in each hand.

"None for me, Mother," Thor smiled. "I have brought the ladies Jane and Darcy to see you. This is my mother, Frigga, wife of Odin."

Darcy and Jane both murmured making awkward curtsies from sheer confusion. Frigga smiled.

"Always a pleasure to meet my son's companions," she said with an arched brow. "Although you have travelled far for tea."

"Loki has been using Lady Darcy ill. I had hoped you could ease her mind and advise our course," Thor stepped down into the sunken seating area. Jane and Darcy followed him.

"I don't understand," Frigga said looking from Thor to Darcy and back again. "Loki is- how could he?"

"Show my mother, Darcy."

Darcy pulled out the book and handed it to Frigga. Her hands hesitated as she took it. As if she sensed the magic that had resided there. Her eyes widened as she looked at Darcy.

"How?" Frigga looked at Thor again.

"Where did you get the book?" Thor prompted Darcy.

Darcy hesitated. The stinging was back. Her tongue felt like a ribbon of melted gold coursed over it. "L-l-loan."

She managed the word. Panting a little as the pain subsided.

"Does she mean?" Frigga looked back and Thor who nodded. Frigga extended both her hands towards Darcy's face. "Come here, child."

Her hands were blissfully cold as Frigga caressed her face. She tilted Darcy's chin so she looked into her eyes. Her thumbs moved over her lips in a soothing way.

"You have ancient eyes, my dear," Frigga said kindly. "And an anger you have yet to understand. I can see why my son meddled with you. Loki has always been drawn to what he cannot master quickly."

Darcy squeaked as even his name in the mouths of others made her tongue tingle. Frigga pressed her thumb and index finger to Darcy's lips and pulled gently as if untying a bow. Jane's brow creased as she saw nothing, but Darcy saw and felt a needle sharp barbed chain pulled from her mouth the glowing colour of magic. Her body leaned forward as if drawn by the chain. As the last link left her mouth she gasped in air.

"Loki, Loki, Loki," she cried out. Hinging forward as she did so her head was in Frigga's lap. She made a muffled screaming noise and thudded her fists into the upholstery. "That rat bastard Loki."

Frigga made comforting noises as smoothed her hands in her hair. "It is alright, my dear. It is alright."

"I wish to being Sigyn's case before the Allfather once again," Thor said softly. Frigga's hands stilled.

"That is not wise, my son. Your father does not like taking back his decisions."

"What we know now, of Loki, of his ambition, it is possible she was unfairly judged."

"Sigyn was not without trespass," Frigga argued back. "She went to Midgard without permission and once there used her magic without discretion. There are natural orders she disobeyed. She left places there so knotted they have yet to be unwound."

"Loki, could have been the one to spur those actions-"

"Even on trial, Sigyn maintained his innocence. She admitted her guilt in corrupting him."

"Did she love him?" Jane piped up, all eyes turned to look at her as a faint flush lit her cheeks. "If she loved him and worried he would be punished, her confession could be - compromised?"

Frigga sighed, "it is selfish of me to wish my son had known such a love. Even if it was fleeting."

"I am the relic," Darcy mumbled into Frigga's skirts.

"What?" Frigga paused. Her hands hovered above Darcy, tense and uncertain.

"The lady in the book said I am Sigyn's body. And now she is inside me," Darcy sat up feeling dazed and tired. Frigga had gone pale.

"This changes things," she said softly. "If the body has been awakened, if Sigyn's rebirth has begun it cannot be stopped."

"And then what?" Jane asked with a vicious edge to her voice. "You put Darcy on trial and begin again?"

"Yes," Frigga said. She stood abruptly and moved around the table to the bell pull. She tugged it and deep in the palace shapeless sound vibrated.

"Mother, I brought Lady Darcy here in good faith," Thor protested. He stood angrily.

"There are times, my son, when I must act as queen before I act as your mother. If Loki has taken steps to awaken Sigyn then we cannot be blind to it. You must go before the Allfather and demand to collect all the pieces taken from her. Your friend will not be able to defend herself without knowledge. And Loki, well Loki must have this charge brought against him as well. He has as good as killed a Midgardian for his own gain-"

"Wait," Darcy commanded. Her voice rung with power in the vaulted room. Frigga and Thor turned to look at her with wide eyes. Jane was very pale. "He told me not to open the book. He didn't know. He didn't know what would happen."

"Darce," Jane said with heartbreaking softness. She reached out for her friend's hand. Darcy couldn't remember why she was defending him.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And We're off! The chapter count will probably increase and so too will the rating 😘
> 
> I don't know, if you guys are feeling it.
> 
> I don't really write this pairing so it feels a bit like talking to strangers. Drop me a comment or shoot me a DM on tumblr @leightoningstrike  
> Lets be friends  
> ❤💚💙💜DH

She didn't like Odin. She couldn't explain it beyond a winding in her gut and the sensation of distrust that filled her from her toes to the crown of her head. She wanted to mark it off as knowing he could decide to kill her for no other reason than Loki seemed drawn to her.

She resented that. It made the same anger curdle in the back of her throat as when the boys would make fun of her body in school. Pushing her around and getting in her space and all her teachers had to say was 'what did you do to make them notice you?'. It was the same with Loki, but Darcy knew the sensation of hatred came from deeper inside her than that.

"Well," Odin said after staring at her for a long moment. His eyes went over her head to Thor. "Is this it?"

"Lady Darcy has been on a long journey, Allfather. She seeks our help."

"Yes, I have heard her tale," he lifted the book that had ruined Darcy's life as if it were no more than litter he found on the ground. It was dwarfed by his hand. "My son gave you this book and now you believe yourself to be the enchantress Sigyn. Delusion."

"Why?" Darcy demanded, letting her rage carry her voice. "Jane could not even touch the book. I can. I saw Sigyn. She told me what you did to her. Why can't I be the relic?"

She didn't want to be. She wished what Odin said was true. That she had merely lost her mind and that all this was fantasy. Except he was dismissing it as impossible because of Darcy, because she was less than. That made her angry. It ate at her in a way being insignificant never had before.

"A Midgardian could never be the Relic," Odin answered her. He looked to Frigga, it was her judgment that was also being questioned.

"Why not? If the Relic is reborn every generation why couldn't it be Darcy?" Jane asked in the matter of fact way she asked every question. Darcy nodded. She wished she hadn't been shunted so far forward and could reach out to Jane for support.

"It makes no sense," Odin answered with a curling of his lip. "A generation in each realm is different. The first Relic may well still be alive if they were born on Vanaheim or Nidavellir. They could be an infant."

"My King," Frigga said softly. Something in Odin softened when he looked at her. "Look at her with open eyes. If we are wrong then she must be helped as a victim of our son. If we are right then the matter is only complicated by closed mindedness. Either answer requires action."

Odin sighed as he stood from his throne. He walked down the steps as if each tread made his heart heavier.

"My Queen, your wisdom always outweighs my own. Hold out your arm, girl."

Darcy curled her fingers into her sleeve. She considered denying him. Demanding to be sent back to Midgard where she could wait for Loki to come for her again. He would. She knew it with greater certainty than she could apply to anything in her life. She exhaled and set her chin, holding her arm out to Odin.

He pushed the sleeve of her shirt up and hovered her hand above her veins. Her skin tingled. The gentleness with which he held her at odds with the disdain he had for her. Her veins glowed, lit by the deep orange gold she had seen wrapped around Frigga's door.

Odin dropped her hand and stepped away from her. His look burned into her.

"Guards, bring Loki here," Odin demanded. He ascended again to his throne.

Darcy hustled to Jane's side, glancing at Thor. "I take it most Midgardians don't glow."

"All will be well, Lady Darcy," Thor smiled at her, he spoke lowly. "You have friends in Asgard."

* * *

They heard the chains and the footsteps first. They echoed down the hall long before he came into view. Darcy's skin bristled, she didn't want to see him. She didn't trust him and yet she felt like she could not be easy until he was in front of her.

He kept his eyes on Odin as he stalked towards them. Even though she was certain he would not look for her, Darcy shrunk into Thor's side. Jane stepped in front of her, fearless, as if she could stop Loki if like a horny rhino he decided to charge them.

Loki stopped at the base of the steps. He glanced icily towards his mother before turning back to Odin.

"How cozy," he remarked. "Shall we have a trial every time you miss me?"

"Hold your tongue, Loki," the Allfather commanded. "I would think it impossible, but even from your imprisonment you manage to add strikes against you."

"Pray tell what have I done this time? Did I breathe too loudly? Was I not grateful enough for the slop you feed me?"

Odin picked up the book and tossed it on the ground so it landed at Loki's feet. He looked at it for a moment before laughing and tilting his head. He stretched the muscles in his neck, weighed down by the collar, and licked his lips.

"Really, Miss Lewis, given your proclivity for being forgotten I thought you would be better at hiding things." He turned his head swiftly as if he had known where she was all along.

Darcy burst forward from between Jane and Thor. She was angry now. How dare he ruin her life and then laugh at her? "You put a crazy chick in me," she cried out at him.

He turned to look at her and she recoiled slightly. He was so real. He was in front of her and he was not an illusion or projection. This was the real Loki.

"I assure you, it wasn't me."

He looked her up and down slowly, judgment oozing from him.

"Sigyn says hello, Thrall," Darcy spat at him.

He turned to look at her fully. He growled at her, "how do you know that name?"

"Which one?" She batted her eyes at him.

"Children," Odin commanded them. They turned to look at him. "Is this a circus? Do you mock the seriousness of this situation?"

"Tell me, Odin, what is the situation?" Loki hissed as he stepped closer to the throne. His boot brushed Sigyn's book. His eyes flicked down to it, but he did not bend to pick it up.

"The time has passed where I think to spare your feelings. I will admit to a deception that we have all participated in."

"What else is new? This family is built on secrets."

"Sigyn when she was called back to us was not married to another realm."

"What?" The word sliced from Loki's mouth like a knife.

"She was tried as your seducer and exiled."

"And you kept this from me?" His voice was low and dangerous. His eyes swept from Odin to his mother. "You let me believe-"

His voice cracked as he laughed. "But of course you did. That is what you do. You lie and steal and throw everything into chaos that does not benefit you."

"Loki," Frigga stepped forward with her soothing voice. "It was by her request you were not told."

"Did she choose the lie or did the Allfather?"

"That isn't important," Odin answered.

"It is to me," Loki's voice snapped with barely contained rage. Darcy remembered her dreams. Remembered how he looked at her. Sympathy washed over her in a way she never thought she would feel for Loki.

"Whether by your intention or by design, you have brought together the Relic and a piece of Sigyn. That magic and power is being awoken in a weak Midgardian body. We have no choice but to retry Sigyn in her new life, with the revelations in your character exposed to us," Odin called Loki's attention back to the throne. "I will give you until the dawning of the eastern star above the horizon to collect what you can of her. Whatever you manage to assemble will stand before us. Fail and you have as good as killed the Midgardian. Another crime added to your ledger."

"And how do you know I can be trusted to aid in this quest? Why allow me beyond my prison walls?"

"I would not make this choice if my hand were not forced. The truth is we do not know what the effect of putting an Aesir soul into a Midgardian body will be. Your brother will aid the quest. As will the Lady's chaperone-"

Darcy glanced over at Jane, who pointed at herself mouthing 'me'. Darcy shrugged.

"Neither can be expected to understand Sigyn's powers as you do. Consider it the beginning of your penance for harming yet another Midgardian," Odin continued.

Loki rolled his eyes, "when did you start thinking so highly of Midgard?"

"Consider more accurately Loki, when I started thinking so lowly of you."

Loki grit his teeth, "you have yet to answer how I am to be controlled. I don't especially care for the Midgardian or her fate."

Darcy bit her tongue to stop her sticking her tongue out at him.

"I will leave that to your mother and her ways."

Frigga bowed her head and crossed to take Darcy's arm. Darcy felt Loki's eyes devouring the kind gesture as if he wanted to peel off Darcy's skin. She narrowed her eyes at him. Challenging him, unlike Loki she had friends in her corner.

* * *

She wasn't sure where Frigga led them, except they seemed to be travelling constantly downward and the air was becoming cooler. The way was lit by dim lamps and Darcy felt a lump in her throat as the walls came closer. She was very aware that Frigga was in front of her and Loki behind. His guards were last. If he had wanted to, he could have launched his body forward and wrapped a chain around her neck. A convenient hostage.

She heard the shifting of links almost as if he were inside her fears.

At last, the stairs ended and they were in a dark room. The light only reached so far and the edges were swallowed by shadows. There was a raised bed in the centre of the room. Smooth and comfortless, like an altar.

"A little macabre, don't you think?" Loki asked as he emerged from the shadows.

"I could be less invasive if my son were less cunning," Frigga answered him.

"At least apologize to Miss Lewis for what you are about to do," he said with a coy quirk to his mouth. He lifted his chains to the guards so they could unlock them. The guards looked to Frigga and she nodded. The chains made a heavy sound as they came loose.

"Leave us," Frigga commanded. "You won't be necessary much longer."

The guards hesitated before retreating up the stairs.

"Am I to be first?" Loki asked his hand moving to the buckle of his coat.

"You are the reason this is necessary," Frigga answered him, she gestured to the bed. Darcy's eyes were ping-ponging between them. She was the only one who didn't understand what was going on.

Loki shrugged off his coat and hopped onto the table with ease. He lay his coat beside him and pulled his shirt over his head. Darcy looked away as he lay back against the stone table.

"Shy, Miss Lewis?" He asked in a low growl. "How unexpected."

"Just nothing worth looking at," she retorted, turning to explore the darkness. In the dim, she could make out dried roots and vials. And rough hewn instruments that looked threatening.

"Loki," his mother admonished him as if he were a child on the playground. "Would you like something for the pain?"

"No," Loki answered her, his back teeth clenching slightly. "It will make for a nice change."

"Pain?" Darcy turned to look at them again. "No one said anything about pain."

"If what Odin says is true, Miss Lewis, then your pain is only just beginning," he taunted her with a lift of his eyebrows.

"Bite this," his mother answered, sticking a wood bit between his teeth. He had done his damage, Darcy felt all over her the pins and needles of panic. He held her eyes for a moment longer before dropping his head back to the table.

"My dear, do not look so worried," Frigga soothed as she moved around the table. She came closer and Darcy had to fight the urge to shrink from her. Frigga produced a thin gold reed, shorter than her pinky finger and only slightly thicker than a sewing needle. At one end was what looked like a clear glass bulb. "As you can imagine, keeping my son in line has been a problem I have spent many nights considering. Since his infancy."

Darcy choked out a laugh around her fear. There was a mumbling from the table and it sounded almost as if Loki was humming "I can hear you." Frigga ignored him.

"This is a Norn Needle. It ties the destinies of two bodies together. In space, in health, in life. He will not be able to go far without you, what you suffer he will eventually suffer. If you die, he dies."

Frigga held out her hand and Darcy placed her hand in hers. She turned her face away as she felt the prick of the needle. When Frigga drew it away the tip was jewel red with Darcy's blood.

Frigga walked to Loki and picked up a thin dagger from the darkness. Darcy watched transfixed as his pale body tensed. His mother felt along his chest with her finger until finding the right place. She dragged the blade along his skin and he flinched. Only then Darcy could look away. His groans around the bit in his mouth sounded almost like laughter. There was shuffling and sound. The clink of metal on stone. Darcy peeked through her fingers and saw Loki pulling on his shirt.

"Your turn, Miss Lewis."

"Wait? Why do I need one?" Darcy protested.

"They work in pairs, my dear," Frigga answered her gesturing to the bed. Darcy looked down at her shirt. Long sleeved and black. She sighed resolutely as she slid her butt onto the table. She kept her back to Loki as she took off her glasses and placed them on the table. She breathed out and counted to three before she tugged her shirt off. Her skin prickled in the cold room. Frigga held her eye as she handed Darcy a vial.

"For the pain."

Darcy didn't even question, she drank it back so quickly. She lay on the slab, she tried not to imagine it was warm from Loki's body. She glanced towards him, he was looking at her. She curled her lip and quirked her brow. "A little privacy?"

"I was married to a goddess, Miss Lewis. You hold no charms for me."

"Doesn't mean you get a free show," she retorted. He turned as his Mother brought the needle to him. Darcy's head was starting to spin from the potion. She closed her eyes as the darkness wanted to creep over her.

She felt in a distant way Frigga's fingertips tracing her skin.

"Wait, no," she muttered against the pull of the potion. "My tits are my best feature."

She thought she heard Loki laugh as she slipped away to a warm dark place that sounded like a beating heart.


	10. Chapter 10

Sigyn's black cloak rubbed against his coat. The wool catching the velvet silk and making a soft shushing noise as they walked arm in arm. Another night at the theatre. A play this time, a production of Shakespeare. The tale of a lonely prince, tortured by his own doubt and inaction. Though she would not admit it, Loki knew Sigyn had brushed away a tear in the dark of their theatre box.

What Loki wouldn't give to capture that tear like a gem. Demand to know its source. To know what in the play had melted her enough to produce it.

She paused as she approached her steps. Loki looked down at her as her feet slowed.

"You hesitate, Madame?"

Sigyn relaxed and released his arm. "No, my lord. I only wish to rest a moment."

He cocked his head at her as she walked aways up the steps to her house and sat on the low wide balustrade. Her cloak slipped and the gold design of her dress caught the light.

"We are almost at your door," he said, standing at the bottom of the steps. Sigyn sighed dramatically.

"I find myself too weak to carry on," her gloved hand moved to her ear and tugged loose the large pearl and ruby earring that hung there. She placed it next to her and kept her black evening glove pressing into it.

"Shall I carry you?" Loki teased, putting one foot on the lower stair.

"No, I just need to rest a moment."

Her hand moved to her other earring. She placed it on her other side. Her glove covering it as well.

Beside her a small grubby hand emerged from the darkness and felt along the stone. Loki opened his mouth to speak but was silenced by Sigyn yawning dramatically, her hand coming to her mouth. The small hand snatched the exposed earring and disappeared. Sigyn gasped looking at the place the earring had been, she brought her other hand to her mouth.

"My lord," she cried in false distress. "I have lost my earring."

A different hand appeared from the dark. This one even smaller and snatched the other earring. Sigyn turned, gasping again.

"Oh I am ever so unlucky," she cried out. Loki laughed and walked the rest of the way toward her. He knelt before her, taking one hand in his. His other hand he reached into his coat.

"Truly, madame, you should be more careful," he produced a shining coin from his pocket and lay it beside her. "If I had a coin for every time you lost a precious piece in your collection I would have a prodigious stack."

He covered the coin with his hand and when he removed it to take her other hand the coin had become six. His eyes stayed on hers as a third dirty paw snatched up the stack.

There was the scuffling of shoes between the houses as the bandits made off with their loot.

"You are sweeter than you would have others believe," Sigyn observed with a quirk to her lips.

"I am merely correcting your oversight. There were three," he stood and reached for her to help her to her feet.

"I only have two ears," she answered taking his hand.

"And no other baubles?"

"They will get in trouble if they have too many fine pieces. Earrings get lost. A matching set does not."

He walked her the rest of the way to her door. "You are astute in your charity. I wonder you do not offer them the same powers you give your girls."

"They are children. I hope that they need not pay heavy prices yet for the burdens they bear."

"How is it you have such a warm heart for the Midgardians and yet I feel I am only tolerated?"

Sigyn looked out at the city for a moment, or at least what could be seen from her doorstep.

"I could not say, son of Odin, where my distrust lies. You are not wrong in thinking I fear attracting Odin's interest. Perhaps, it is that your plans remain opaque to me. The service you ask has been no more than my company, yet I feel I am disappointing."

"Shall I tell you my plans?" He asked softly drawing her close. He traced the shell of her ear down to the lobe. It was still pink from the weight of her earring. "What would I get in return?"

"What could I offer a prince of Asgard?" She asked, tilting her head back so she could see his face. She looked so lovely in lamplight. She looked lovely in every light.

"Put an end to my distraction," he answered, he moved his hand to her chin. She blinked softly and slowly. He took it as permission and ducked his head to press his mouth to hers. She resisted for a moment, he breathed in, giving her the scantest sliver of space; to escape, to curse him, whatever she pleased. He felt her hand curl into his lapel and she closed the space between them again.

He had not realized the tension in him, the fear she would push him away, until he felt his body relax into her. He realized how cold it had grown in the evening by the heat of her breath. She felt warm and lush compared to the night air.

He stroked his finger against her skin, rhythmic and slow, coaxing her to soften her mouth so he could kiss her more deeply. She pushed him away instead, gently, with a small kiss to the corner of his mouth.

"You do not feel less distracted, my lord," she murmured. Her eyes were closed and her skin was flushed.

"Perhaps it is hopeless then, Madame, and you will always have my full attention," he whispered to her, a grin tugging at his mouth.

* * *

Darcy woke up slowly, her head foggy, and the feeling of Loki still heavy over top of her. She groaned. She liked the Loki in her dreams so much better than reality. She was in danger of blending fact and fiction together.

The warmth and weight lingered, Darcy realized someone was in bed with her. She turned as best she could, the world was out of focus without her glasses. She reached blindly through the sheets for them. She found them hooked on the elaborate headboard. She relaxed when she saw it was Jane's head on the pillow beside her. She rolled over and Jane's brow furrowed.

"Are you alright?" She mumbled with her eyes still closed. Darcy poked the place Frigga had slid home the needle. It ached but at least there was no more than a faint feeling of something beneath her skin. She was aware that her bare legs moved against silk.

"I am fine, what am I wearing?"

"Asgardian pajamas," Jane answered rolling her head deeper into the pillows.

"Who put me in pajamas?" Darcy asked. Jane didn't answer. Darcy pushed up on her elbow and poked her. "Hey, hey this is important."

Jane swatted her hand away.

"Wait, where were you when I was getting poked? Were you with Thor? Did you guys talk? Did you guys hook up?" The questions fell rapid fire from Darcy's mouth as she continued to jab at her boss.

"Yes, Dr. Foster, do tell. We are all dying of curiosity," a droll voice floated over them. Darcy sat up properly, her pulse racing. It was one thing to have lurid dreams about someone, but another thing for them to be in the same room when you did it. Loki was sprawled in a gilt chair, his long legs stretched out in front of him.

"Who let you in here?" She demanded.

Loki tapped the place where the needle was. She felt an answering vibration in her own skin, a small almost indescribable flutter. "We cannot be separated, remember?"

"Okay, that thing has got to have better range than this," Darcy gestured to the scant twelve feet between them.

"It does," Loki made a groaning noise as he tilted himself forward in the chair. His elbows braced on his knees. "But given the layout of the palace I wasn't inclined to stand at the end of a hallway like a naughty child just to give you some semblance of privacy."

Darcy grabbed up a pillow to hurl at him. "Creep-"

Jane stopped her by wrapping her arms around her shoulders. Loki's glare was bright with disdain. "Remember New Mexico, Darce. Let's all just get along and get through this."

"Yes, Miss Lewis, listen to your friend. Your temper will get you in trouble."

He stood and stretched. The details of the room were only just beginning to impress themselves on Darcy. The bed was inset into the slate floor and above them arched pillars of white marble and gold. Liberace could only dream of this sort of elegance. It made Darcy uncomfortable. She felt Jane's arms relax against her and her head lean on her shoulder. Darcy followed Loki with her eyes. He walked to the balcony.

He stood silhouetted against colours that could be dawn or could be sunset. Darcy had no sense of time in this place.

The door creaked as it opened and they all turned to see Thor enter.

"Good, you're awake," he observed with a smile as he carried packs on his back and in each hand. He lay them by the door as Jane ran a self conscious hand through her hair. Thor moved to the edge of the bed and crouched. "How do you feel, Lady Darcy?"

"Nothing a cup of coffee and a muffin the size of my head wouldn't fix," she answered smiling at Thor. Her fingers dug suggestively into Jane's side.

"We will eat before we travel, though you may have to make do with Asgardian fare."

"What is the plan?" Loki asked striding in from the balcony. Thor's eyes when he looked at him held an unreadable pain. Darcy felt sympathy for the brothers. She knew Thor did not want to be at odds.

"The Allfather trusted the care of Sigyn's soul to six guardians. They are spread about the Nine Realms."

Loki scoffed, "considering what small price the Titan asked for it, Odin could have chosen better."

"Father will have to deal with that matter. For now we go to Vanaheim."

"What is Vanaheim?" Darcy asked sliding from beneath the covers. The layers of a diaphanous nightgown trailed after her. "And can I get some pants?"

Thor straightened, laughing softly. He walked around the bed to meet the small step up to floor level but Loki beat him there. He extended his hand to her and she hesitated.

"Come Miss Lewis, if you slip and fall, you will only do me injury," he coaxed her with a charming smile. She sighed and took his hand. She always expected him to be cold, but he was warm. His hand closed around hers and his other came to her elbow as she lifted her skirts out of the way of her feet.

"What a tragedy," she answered him as she dropped her skirt and let it swish over her feet. She let go of him as if he burned her.

He was lost when it came to Miss Lewis. Her reappearance on Asgard had been unexpected. It made him feel the fool that he had not realized exactly what Sigyn's book was. How could he when he thought her still alive?

He watched her as she drifted to the dressing table. He could not have predicted who she was, even though there had been something about her that drew him in. She looked nothing like his wife. All dark hair and curves where Sigyn had been blonde and slight. And her mouth. Miss Lewis had a cutting wit, with no allure or seduction. She used her words to push, to needle, to set down. Sigyn had been the master of coaxing. He could not see her at all in the Midgardian, save her eyes.

The eyes were distractingly the same.

She picked up a brush and began to work it through the tangled waves. She caught his eyes in the mirror and arched her brow. He turned away. Thor and Dr. Foster's eyes were on him as well. Thor coughed and looked away.

"To answer your question, Lady Darcy, Vanaheim is another of the Nine Realms. There we will find the most allies. It is better we start somewhere we are assured shelter. Until we better understand your situation."

"You mean in case another piece of her soul kills me?" Darcy said matter of factly.

"We just need to collect the pieces, you absorbed Sigyn's fury by accident," Jane assured her. "Now we know that can happen we will just be more careful."

Loki was listening intently. "Do we know which piece is on Vanaheim?"

"Father would not say."

"How was she split?" Loki's voice was too cold to be passionless. Instead the pain was driven so deep into him it found the ice at his core. He could not bear to picture her helpless as Odin tore her apart. Or had it been his mother? Whose powers best suited the task? Who could have done it?

"Seven pieces," Miss Lewis answered softly. "Her body, her memories, her sorrow, her love, her magic, her immortality and her fury. Five left."

"We should find her immortality first," Loki argued. "If there is a question of Miss Lewis' durability it is senseless to focus on anything else."

"The Allfather will not have hidden that on Vanaheim," Thor argued.

"Then we don't go to Vanaheim."

"I am in charge of this mission-"

"And I am responsible for Miss Lewis' welfare," Loki interrupted him.

"It is your own life you protect. Do you fear death, Brother? Because going anywhere but Vanaheim before she is ready will put us all in danger."

Loki opened his mouth to argue back, but Darcy stop him by thumping hard against the place her needle was. Loki's hand moved to his chest as he growled against the sensation, Darcy leaned over making a keening sound. She hurt both of them to silence him.

"Point taken, Miss Lewis," Loki grit around the discomfort. "We will go to Vanaheim if you wish."


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> PLEASE LOVE ME  
> Or at the very least don't hate me 😛
> 
> I am excited to be back at this story. Remember comments and kudos power even the most hopeless writer 😘😘😘
> 
> 💜❤️💙💚DH

The blue lightning of the bifrost disappeared as quickly as it had engulfed them. The rush of air was gone and soft grass was beneath Darcy's feet. Loki released his hold on her immediately when they landed as she stumbled forward gasping and laughing. Her pack rattled like jingle bells on her back. She felt drunk on fresh air.

"I will never get used to that rush," Darcy turned smiling back to Thor who was still holding Jane and Loki who looked unrumpled. She supposed it felt different to hurtle through space in a magic tube when you were an alien god. She turned back to the view, rolling green meadows and rocks. "Look at that, Central Park could never."

"Your enthusiasm, Darcy, is always refreshing," Thor observed looking out at Vanaheim. "It is indeed a glorious place."

"If you like dirt," Loki muttered as he began walking toward the small settlement of tents that were down the meadow. Darcy rolled her eyes as she followed him.

"Ignore my brother," Thor said loudly as they walked, he said it genially as if he only talked to Jane and Darcy but he wanted Loki to hear. "He is unused to walking places. It has made him tire easily. His feet, they get sore-"

Loki turned, his pack did not jangle. Everything about him was honed to a sharp edge. He smiled and his face moved like marble. The laughter that had been bubbling in Darcy's throat died.

"You are right. I do not care for walking."

Faster than a viper strike he moved, gripping Darcy's wrist. She barely registered the hard wall of his chest before the feeling of falling made everything dark. She heard Thor and Jane's faint protests as the blackness closed around her.

When the darkness cleared they were standing on the edge of the small settlement. Darcy shoved herself away from him and felt ready to yell. Until she looked at him. He was pale, so pale his skin looked purple and he was leaning forward, breathing heavily. A thin gold chain glowed at his neck. It bound him tightly from his throat to his wrists.

She swallowed her anger and rolled her eyes.

"Was it worth it?" She asked coming closer to him. He shied away from her as she reached for him, his eyes darting warily to her hands.

"Don't," he squeezed out. "It will pass."

"This feels like some Odin bullshit," Darcy remarked, ignoring him and moving to the glowing chain squeezing his neck. She thought he might have wheezed out a laugh, even as he tried to stop her touching him. She hooked her fingers beneath the chain at his neck. His pulse beat against her. It was so easy to forget Loki had a heart.

"What do you think you are doing?" He asked hoarsely as she made the chain tighter. Darcy shushed him as she tried to focus on the small glowing heartbeat in the links. She pinched it with her fingers. "You can't."

The chain cracked as she broke the little heart. She smiled at him as the chain went black then disappeared into mist. "What's wrong Madonna? Am I ruining your look?"

His hand sprung to his neck and he rubbed where the heat of the chain had been. Darcy had felt it against her fingers.

"How?" He tilted his head as he looked at her.

She couldn't answer as there was movement from the settlement. Men and women were coming from the tents. Darcy tensed.

"You ever notice you are bad at making friends?"

"It comes with the territory," Loki muttered taking a step back his hands slightly raised. Darcy mimicked him.

"The territory of being a D bag," Darcy whispered. Each of the emerging bodies was dressed as a warrior. "Hi, everybody."

A man stepped forward, he was slim but he wore heavy armour as if it weighed nothing. Darcy knew strength could be misleading in the Nine Realms.

"Loki, fallen son of Asgard, why are you here?" The man spoke with a deep voice that rasped around the edges like smoke. Darcy could feel Loki tense at the way he was addressed. She stepped in front of him.

"Odin sent us," she said with a tilt of her chin. She dared this man to look down on her.

"Odin sent who?" He looked her up and down, his nostrils flared as if he could smell the Earth on her.

"Miss Lewis," Loki said quietly. She could feel him try to shift behind her. They weren't doing this. Not today, she reached back without moving her eyes from the man in front of her and planted her palm in the centre of Loki's chest.

"Is Vanaheim not allied to Asgard? Is this the welcome Odin should expect to receive?"

The man hesitated, his eyes flicked over Darcy's shoulder and she turned to see Thor moving swiftly over the meadow. Jane was practically jogging to keep up.

"Thor," the man bowed as they reached him. Darcy could feel Loki's breath change beneath her hand and she knew he was rolling his eyes.

"Stalgard," Thor greeted him. "We have been sent by Odin."

"So I have heard," Stalgard grinned, showing a cracked tooth. His eyes flicked to Darcy who did not remove her hand from Loki.

"We have come to see Morwen, but I don't understand why are you here so far from the village?"

"As you know, Morwen has the sight. She said we would be needed here and now you have arrived. She did not mention the fallen son of Asgard."

Loki tensed again against her fingers. She pointed at Stalgard.

"Cut it with that "fallen son" crap," she said. The man rolled his shoulders back and looked down his nose at her.

"His imprisonment is well known across the Realms," Stalgard sneered at her.

"Punishment for his actions on Earth, so only Earthlings-" Darcy pointed between her and Jane, "get to be rude to him."

Stalgard stepped closer to her, leaning into her space so she could count the hairs in his unibrow. She didn't flinch but she knew Loki would feel the bracing of her fingers against him. He would read her fear as easily as if she were a book.

"He destroyed the bifrost. He left us stranded and our Realm descended into war and pillaging."

Darcy turned her head to look back at Loki she willed her expression to ask him "dude?" He responded with a non-committal twitch of his cheek. Darcy turned back finally removing her hand from him to cross her arms.

"That sounds like a Vanaheim problem."

Stalgard beared his teeth and opened his mouth to answer her. Thor found his voice beneath the shock of seeing Darcy defend Loki.

"Stalgard, Asgard will always honour our vow to protect you as our ally. What Lady Darcy says so colourfully is we ask you to respect the Allfather's judgment in sending Loki here."

Stalgard turned his gaze from Darcy and focused on Thor.

"It does not matter. Morwen is waiting for you."

The tent opened and Thor led them in. Darcy held Stalgard's gaze for a long moment as she ducked inside.

"I am not the only one who is bad at making friends," Loki whispered to her. She could hear his amusement.

"Can it," Darcy muttered back.

Morwen was an old woman. Incredibly old. Greying olive flesh sagged and her eyes were so pale they looked like a thick layer of frost had grown over her iris. She sat on the ground her legs bent beneath her.

"Sons and daughters of Odin. At last you are here."

Darcy shoved Jane a little as her eyes went wide. Darcy pressed her thumbs and index fingers together to make little kissing birds. A muscle in Thor's cheek twitched but he didn't correct Morwen as he sat in front of her.

"You know why we have come?"

"You are here for the piece of Sigyn," Morwen nodded. She kept her face forward and seemed to look beyond all of them. "That is good. Another century and she would have split the rock."

"She is not here," Loki rasped, something desperate clawed at his throat.

"Not in body, but her soul is very powerful. Even a tiny fragment threatens the natural order."

Darcy swallowed. She suddenly felt very, very mortal.

"We will take the piece away," Thor assured her.

"It is up the mountain path, find the opening in the rock face. Only one may fit in the path inside the cave. Be wary. The cave was formed around the soul, I cannot see what will happen once it is removed."

"Thank you, Morwen, for your guidance," Thor leaned forward. Darcy had never seen him in "Prince mode" before. She could feel for the first time the vast number of years that separated their lifespan.

They moved to leave the tent but Darcy was gripped by the desire to throw herself around Morwen's shoulders and beg her to reveal what she saw. Did she see what happened to Darcy? What waited at the end of this quest for her? She clenched her hands and turned to leave. The others were already waiting. Morwen looked straight at her through her clouded eyes.

"I cannot see beyond this moment for you, child. There are too many paths open to you. Too many futures for you to choose." Darcy's gut clenched. "Do not be frightened. So many are misled by the illusion of choice, but you are like Yggdrasil. Everywhere are branches and roots for you to nurture."

Darcy pulled her sleeves over her fists and rubbed where Odin had made the magic glow in her veins.

"Umm, thanks," she said softly before she ducked out of the tent. How did one respond to that kind of prediction?

"Are you ready, Lady Darcy?" Thor asked as he pointed towards the mountain path.

"As ready as I will ever be."

* * *

Sigyn's cave was unimpressive. For all the power and pageantry of Asgard, the opening in the mountain was no more than a narrow gap in the face of the mountain. If the path had not stopped so abruptly at the rocky face Darcy might have easily walked past it.

It seemed Vanaheim was a world of natural beauty, the tall rock face was striated with deep reds and browns. Above on a higher path were bright green plants that clung and spilled over the edge. Most beautiful of all were the mists that poured like water, heavy and grey over the stones. If she was not encountering her own mortality, Darcy might have been awed by the sheer glory of it all.

"I guess I should go," Darcy said at last, as they all stood staring silently at it.

"You don't have to," Jane immediately responded. Darcy felt her reach for her hand. "This isn't your fault."

Darcy didn't need to look at her boss to know she was glaring at Loki. It wasn't his fault either, Darcy realized. For all his garbage tricks and raining death from the sky, Loki hadn't known what would happen when he gave her that book. If he had known there was no guarantee his decisions would have been different, but he didn't like this anymore than she did. He was out of control. This was not something he had planned on.

"It will be fine."

"You can't even touch whatever it is."

"No, but I can go look and we can make a plan."

"You are brave, Lady Darcy."

"Just stupid," Darcy corrected Thor as she dropped her pack and marched towards the opening in the rock.

She rocked her body into the tight crevice. The rock scraped her cheek and snagged her hair as she forced her way through. The light dimmed around her, for the first twenty feet there was no light, but slowly as her eyes adjusted she became aware of a gold glow coming from the back of the cave. It had the increasingly familiar heat and pulse of magic. The path widened enough she could walk forward without sidling, but the stone walls hovered at the edges of her vision.

A statue came into view, almost naked, the white marble body was carved to look like it wore only a twisting diaphanous sheet.

"Bold look, Barbie," Darcy said to the statue. She recognized Sigyn from her dreams even if her blonde hair and blue eyes were the cold dove grey of stone. Darcy's eyes traveled down her thin body, small pert breasts and narrow hips. The subtle outline of ribs and spine disappearing into a torso that begged to be touched even when carved from stone. Darcy whistled. "No wonder Tall, Dark and Horny didn't recognize us. Odin redistributed more than just your soul."

The statue was crying. Real water ran down her cheek in endless streams.

"So, I take it you are sorrow."

Sigyn didn't answer.

Darcy circled the statue, in her hands she held a shallow bowl. Her head was turned so she could watch anyone approach, the water dripped off her chin and landed on the ground. The gritty floor swallowed the tears happily. Darcy wondered if the gold bowl was the item she was meant to collect. She bent over to stare at it, hinging at the waist to bring it even with her eyeline. It shone, the metal burnished to reflect the light, but it seemed emit light from within. Carved into it was the twisting shapes of snakes and lilies. Darcy squinted her eyes and cocked her head.

She was certain this wasn't the piece. The book had looked like nothing special, but this was beautiful. A thief would take this and that would defeat the purpose. The longer she stared at it, the snakes seemed to writhe. She tried to force her eyes to focus harder. Then she saw it. Words that were not words, combinations of letters she should not understand. And yet she did.

'To receive Sigyn's Sorrow, Drink of her Tears.'

Darcy's eyes moved from the bowl to Sigyn's single crying eye.

"Hundred and fifty year old cave water? This better kill me."

Darcy hovered her fingers at the edge of the bowl and took a deep breath in. She counted to three and closed her eyes before she snatched up the dish, her body ready to flee if this cave went full-Aladdin or she fell forward into Sigyn's soul once more. She waited a moment before opening one eye and then the next.

Darcy sighed. She could do this. Jane, Thor and Loki felt hundreds of miles away as she held the bowl. She wondered if the cave was enchanted to pull her far away. The loneliness started to bubble in her chest as she screwed up her courage. She could do this.

She held the bowl under Sigyn's stream of tears. It filled slowly but constantly. The water swirled with twinkling minerals like diamond flakes. Darcy knew she had to fill it until it reached the brim, nothing about this challenge, from the cave to the bowl, was arbitrary. She moved the bowl carefully once it was full and brought it to her lips.

It was cold and tasted of chalk and sugar. She breathed through her nose as she drank it back quickly and deeply, like her first cheap tequila shot. She swallowed and swallowed until the bowl was empty and a little bit of water trailed down her chin. She took a deep gulping breath as she slammed the bowl back into place in the statue's hands.

For a long moment nothing happened. Darcy's frustration began to tick up her throat, pushing up a burble of nasty water. She hated this whole convoluted set up.

"Okay, your turn Lady," she muttered at the statue. A shimmering bubble formed at the corner of Sigyn's dry eye, a creamy teardrop pearl slid from within the stone by magic. It was followed by a ruby. Darcy blinked and realized it was an earring as it fell free and dropped into the bowl.

Outside the cave the air was tense, Loki had watched Miss Lewis contort herself into the entrance and disappear. His feet had carried him immediately to the mouth of the cave and he had strained his eyes to watch her progress, but Miss Lewis was hidden from him. His gut clenched, but he knew if he felt no pain then she was not far. She was merely shrouded.

He laughed beneath his breath, a soundless dismissive puff of air. This tasted of Sigyn, he felt her presence as strongly as he had when he held the book. He could almost hear her sweetly mocking voice, 'are sulking you cannot see her, Son of Odin?' This was how she had taunted him when she had been alive. So close but so far. Always slipping through his fingers, only held when she wanted to be. He could feel the sting in his gut of old habits, old addictions. If he could pursue this spectre and bring her to the corporeal world with dedicated love-making, he would.

His thoughts shifted from Sigyn to Miss Lewis as time stretched and they did not hear from her.

"Should someone else go in?" Dr. Foster asked from behind him. "What if she is hurt or stuck?"

"Morwen said only one may enter. We could bring more danger by rushing," his brother soothed his woman. Loki had to yield the point to Thor, his logic was sound.

Loki placed his hand on the rock face and willed the stone to answer him. Warm mists ran between his fingers, mocking him.

Then the shaking started. He stepped back so he could see better. Dr. Foster made a distressed sound and his brother charged towards the opening as the shaking moved to the ground and rumbled in their feet. Cracks that had softly spouted mist opened and spewed heat and water.

Nothing Thor or Dr. Foster did would be fast enough, Loki realized as black mist enveloped him and he was thrust forward towards Miss Lewis.

Darcy had stared for a moment as the earring lay in the bowl. She pulled her sleeve over her hand. It seemed ridiculous that the thin cotton would be enough, but there had to be rules, right? She pinched the earring delicately and waited. Nothing happened. She lifted it up from the bowl, she could feel small tremors begin in her feet. She would need to run. She shifted her body so she was half turned towards the cave mouth, but her eyes stayed on the statue. She counted to three, then jammed the earring in her jean's pocket.

That was when the shaking began in earnest, she turned completely, ready to run as rocks loosened and fell. Loki appeared in her path. His hands chained together, another at his neck. His lip curled in discomfort.

"Do you have it?" He asked roughly, his focus burning into her.

"Yes," she answered her eyes sweeping over the splitting cave. Rocks were falling from the ceiling and cracks were opening in the floor.

He lifted his bound wrists over her head and she stepped into the circle of his arms. She clutched at the chain at his throat ready to break it.

"We don't have time for that. Hold on," he whispered to her, his mouth near her ear. Darcy was about to be crushed by rocks but at that moment all she could think about was the fact this bastard turned her insides into a lava lamp. She nodded and placed a hand on either side of his face, her palms pressed to the smooth skin of his neck and her thumbs brushing his jaw. Anything to keep more chains from choking him. His arms tightened and they were falling through the black.

Their landing was less than graceful. Thin chains of restrictive magic bound their legs together so no sooner did they land outside the collapsing cave, then Miss Lewis' sagging body pulled them to the ground. To the outside eye it would appear they popped into existence with Miss Lewis beneath him, her hands caressing his face. Only Loki could see the look in her eyes, a spitting cat ready to shove him away.

"Darcy," Dr. Foster called her name and Miss Lewis tilted her head as far as she could to try and catch her friend in her eyeline. Her hands stayed caressing his face and when he glanced down, Loki understood why. The added chains had looped around her hands and wrists so they did not cut into his flesh. The links were slackened by her hold on him. It made something close to gratitude unfurl deep in his chest. The bloom faded quickly as his brother appeared over Dr. Foster's shoulder.

"Loki," he admonished.

"I take it they can't see the issue?" Miss Lewis glanced back at him, her eyes moving to the way they were bound together.

"It would appear not," he answered softly back, tilting his cheek close to hers, needling at his brother's protective nature.

"We need a minute," Miss Lewis announced.

"Why? Get off her," Dr. Foster commanded. For a slight woman, she had an impressive ability to control attention.

"Jane, just turn around for a second, okay?" Miss Lewis pleaded. His brother took Dr. Foster by the shoulder and turned her when it looked like she was opening her mouth to argue. His eyes though, held Loki's with a distrustful stare. Miss Lewis called his attention back to her. "Move your hands, they are digging into my ass."

Loki blinked as her words sunk in. His hands instinctively had formed a fist around the chains, his knuckles were digging into soft flesh. He uncurled his hands slowly as Miss Lewis arched her back to remove the pressure. This only pressed her more firmly against him. When she settled against the ground again, the curve of her backside was filling his palms.

"This can't be preferable," he said in a low growling voice.

"Practice silent gratitude while I work."

He laughed. She had wit, this strange Midgardian woman. Her hands slid beneath the chains, pulling them tighter and threatening to choke him. He was about to protest when he felt the first chain break. His throat made a low groaning of its own accord as the pressure released. Miss Lewis paused, her eyes flicked up to his face but he could not meet her gaze. He felt the tremor first, then the snort as she giggled at him.

"This isn't funny, Miss Lewis. Imagine you were the one restrained."

"Don't threaten me with a good time."

He gripped her hips and rolled them so she landed on top of him with a surprised squeak. He smiled at her.

"Apologies, parts were going numb."

Her eyes slid to her friends. His brother had a firm grasp on Dr. Foster's shoulders, but Loki could feel her deep desire to turn around. Miss Lewis' hand gripped the chain unsteadily, and jerked. The links bit into Loki's flesh.

"With a little more finesse, Miss Lewis."

She rolled her eyes, but moved her other hand to the small centre of magic, the burning pin that held it all together. He could watch her this time, see her find the pulsing light and with her small mortal mind identify it's importance. He could also watch her snap it with the twisting of her hands. It was brutish, violent and fascinating. The chains turned to smoke and ash. Miss Lewis removed herself from his lap with lightening speed.

"Okay, let's go," Darcy called to Jane and Thor, dusting the dirt from her knees. She looked behind her and saw the cave was no more than a pile of rubble now. She shook off the chill as the reality struck home that she could have died. She started heading back down the mountain, not waiting for the others, not even grabbing her pack. She needed to not be here. She needed to be far away from the feeling of Loki gripping her and the pounding of her heart.

He was a bastard. He was a liar. He was a killer.

"He is your husband," a small voice whispered in her ear. Darcy tugged and swatted as if the voice of Sigyn was no more than a mosquito.


End file.
